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Our project presented on November 4, 2025 as part of the following session:
Session Title: Rooted in Wonder: Nature-inspired Theater for Young Audiences Presenters: Nicole B. Adkins, Vanita Keswani, Emily Kitchens, Jodye Underwood. Session Description: This session explores the intersection of performing arts, ecology, and education through the lens of interactive, inclusive, nature-based performances that have adaptable frameworks for schools, gardens, professional theatres, and other settings. Discover how artists and educators from Discovery Stage Company, Partner Learning, Kennesaw State University’s Department of Theatre & Performance Studies, and Smith-Gilbert Gardens use best practices to create nature-inspired, curriculum-aligned theatre for young audiences. Explore sensory-friendly performances, outdoor interactive productions, and eco-conscious partnerships–through hands-on demos and performances from current productions!
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https://www.wabe.org/kennesaws-smith-gilbert-gardens-invites-young-audiences-to-new-interactive-play/
click here for an article published in the KSU College of the arts news updates, also featured on Broadway world.
Our project presented on August 1 as part of the following panel session:
Session Title: Healing the Self, Healing the Whole: Revisioning Theatre Education’s Impact through Community-Based Applied Theatre Session Description: Our students come in need of community and connection. An increasingly polarized and isolated society, enduring social justice and environmental crises, and a broken education system mean our students are more stressed than ever, with mental health issues at an all-time high. The trickle-down effect of toxic professional theatre rhetoric means even high school theatre students are exposed to concepts that fuel the ego and damage an authentic sense of self. Conventional theatre education on the undergraduate level does little to reverse this damage, and often only deepens it–thus perpetuating the cycle in the professional sphere. We envision a paradigm shift in the field, where participating in community-based applied theatre is no longer niche or extracurricular in students’ educations, but instead is acknowledged as vital and essential. We picture a world free of competitiveness, educational trauma, and burn-out, where young professionals emerge as compassionate, generous, and resilient individuals. We imagine theatre education that centers individual healing and growth while building a better society. Our presentation justifies the integration of applied theatre across theatre degree tracks and across disciplines, examining the benefits to students’ social-emotional, artistic, civic, and professional growth. Join us for a panel presentation from artist-educators applying theatre in undergraduate courses with diverse issues and community populations, followed by an embodied, theatre-based group reflection and discussion. Featuring:
Thanks to Julia Whitten for her kind mention of our programming in her Member Spotlight interview in the May TYA/USA update!
Our project was featured in the multidisciplinary issue of the Public Garden Magazine, publication of the national American Public Gardens Association (pages 14-15). https://www.instagram.com/smithgilbertga/p/C3LR7Jfr3V7/
Our partnership was chosen to participate in the Theatre for Young Audiences conference spring 2024. KSU Professor, Nicole B. Adkins, Director Andrea Washington, Department Chair, Chuck Meacham and Smith-Gilbert Gardens’ Education and Exhibits Manager, Vanita Keswani presented our model of immersive theatre, as a panel, as performed at the Gardens. The 2024 TYA/USA National Festival & Conference took place from Wednesday, March 13 to Friday, March 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Hosted by the Alliance Theatre, the TYA/USA 2024 Festival & Conference invited theatremakers from across the country to gather for artistic exchange, dialogue, and framing for the future to motivate us to action. TYA/USA is the leading national organization for the professional field of theatre for children and families, representing over 1,000 member theatres, organizations, and individual artists across 47 states. Dedicated to ensuring that all young people have access to high-quality theatre experiences, TYA/USA offers a variety of programming and provides a network of exchange that connects professionals working across the industry. The Seedling is on NPR's WABE City Lights program!!! (48 minutes and 30 seconds in).
https://www.wabe.org/.../city-lights/illumine-the-seedling/ |
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