Committed to bringing the performing arts to all middle schoolers

Open Stage is a performing arts education program for middle school students and teachers in the Pasadena Unified School District. Artists-in-residence and classroom teachers collaborate to integrate theatre with the history/social studies and English language arts curricula through attendance at live performances and a sequence of classroom-based lessons and activities that incorporate reading, writing, interpreting, and performing theatre texts. 

Open Stage was initially planned and implemented by PUSD and several local theatre organizations with a two-year Arts Education Collective Impact grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. After careful assessment of the pilot program by the district’s Arts & Enrichment Office and an independent evaluator, the program has been refined to focus on curriculum content as well as social-emotional learning, an important aspect of personal  developmental for this age group. 

Currently, the program serves all 2,400 7th & 8th grade students at PUSD’s seven middle schools. Kellen Law, an experienced theatre artist and educator, is the current artist-in-residence.

Strong partnership with the Pasadena Playhouse, A Noise Within, and The Sierra Madre Playhouse ensures that in this theatre-rich community, theatre experiences are  an integral part of the middle school education of PUSD’s diverse student body.

Teacher Objectives:

1. Teachers will build confidence in their ability to deliver theatre integrated learning experiences across subject areas.
2. Teachers will be able to determine the relevance of theatre in the development of collaborative, interpretive, and productive language.

Student Objectives:

1. Students will be able to identify, experience, and interpret the elements of theatre by observing, performing, reading, and writing theatre texts. 
2. Students will be able to connect to their own social and emotional experiences (memory and identity) by devising theatrical texts for performance. 
3. Students will be able to empathize with characters (real and imagined) through analysis of a variety of texts as well as historical events.