This lesson explores first the role Brian Epstein played in helping craft The Beatles' visual presence, group identity and team unity, the way he helped the group transition from successful nightclub act to international sensation.
By the end of their 1966 summer tour, The Beatles had grown weary of the live concert setting. Concurrently, they had become increasingly comfortable within, and inspired by the possibilities of the recording studio. In the fall of 1966, in a culminating moment, The Beatles announced that they would no longer tour and would instead focus their creative energy on making records.
This course will present students with an overview of Brazilian popular music, from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Considered an advanced course, it aims to build vocabulary competence and improve oral communication through the study and discussion of topics about cultural aspects and current issues in Brazil. It is designed to give students extensive experience in Portuguese and emphasizes skill development and refinement in the area of critical reading and writing in Portuguese.
This resource was created by Jenny Bauer, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.
In order to practice conducting, you need an orchestra! Learn about what it takes to become an orchestra conductor in this video from Treasures of New York: Juilliard. At Juilliard, the world-famous performing arts school located in New York City, students have the opportunity to work with musicians to hone their conducting skills.
This course surveys Romantic musical genres including song, choral music, opera, piano sonata, character cycle, concerto, symphony, and symphonic poem, including the composers Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Chopin, Brahms, Wagner, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, and Mahler. Written essays and oral presentations are based on live performances as well as listening and reading assignments.
This is an intermediate workshop designed for students who have a basic understanding of the principles of theatrical design and who want a more intensive study of costume design and the psychology of clothing. Students develop designs that emerge through a process of character analysis, based on the script and directorial concept. Period research, design, and rendering skills are fostered through practical exercises. Instruction in basic costume construction, including drafting and draping, provide tools for students to produce final projects.
“No Hablo Español” explores the conflicted cultural identity of a Latina high school student who can’t speak Spanish. Playwright Rosa Estevez explains why parents born in a Spanish-speaking country might prefer English for their children. People behind the scenes describe the play’s fresh pathways for discussing cultural identity, the importance of authenticity and language, and the role of the dramaturg in advocating for the playwright. The play was part of the New Voices Young Playwrights Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville.
With a behind the scenes look at the production of Mary Poppins, Jeromy Smith and Lyndy Franklin Smith, founders of the Lexington Theatre Company, describe their partnership, goals, and how they put a show together. Jeromy explains the factors that affect their choice of plays to perform. Lyndy details how a production comes together over the course of three weeks. The collegiate ensemble rehearses music and choreography in a four-day boot camp, then the professional actors join the cast. After almost two weeks of rehearsals, costume fittings, set design, and technical adjustments, the production is ready for opening night.
Learn how the National Theater conceived a new version of the iconic Balcony Scene in this behind-the-scenes mini-documentary about the making of Great Performances: Romeo and Juliet. During the ongoing shutdown of London due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Theater created a compelling hybrid of theater and film that brings an exciting contemporary perspective to the play.
“Shakespeare’s potential for reinvention is endless,” said director Simon Godwin. “Over 17 days of filming, the company was united by a sense of shared exploration. As well as being given intimate access to the thoughts and feelings of characters, we were able to bring to life remarkable, forgotten spaces at the National Theatre. Desire, dreams and destiny came together to make Romeo & Juliet sing in an entirely new way.”
In Los Angeles, jam skaters draw from a community and culture built over generations at Venice Beach and at rinks across the city. Over the past year, roller skating hit the mainstream as a safe and relatively accessible pandemic-era pastime, its international popularity bolstered by people recording their shaky progress on social media. Skates were sold out for months, and skaters have become major influencers on Instagram and TikTok. But longtime skaters are quick to remind everyone: This isn’t a fad.
This resource was created by Terresa Greenleaf, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.
Andrew Branca, a high school student from Central Academy of Technology and Arts, in North Carolina talks about how he was inspired to write Boal after attending a summer theater workshop on Brazilian theater activist Augusto Boal. Cast members discuss what it was like to collaborate on the playwriting process and why they felt it was important to start a serious discussion on racism and Islamophobia.
Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
Boal is a play written and performed by high school students from the Central Academy of Technology and Arts in Monroe, North Carolina. Boal brings a variety of social issues to the stage, focusing on racism and Islamophobia.
The play was inspired by Augusto Boal, a Brazilian theater director, writer, and politician. Boal was the founder of the Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical group dedicated to creating political change.
The performance was taped as part of the High School Theatre Festival during the Southeastern Theatre Conference.
Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
This resource was created by Bruklynn Henery, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.
Dancer Amit Patel is reinventing Bollywood dance and making space for queer expression in the South Asian community. At 10, he began Bollywood dance training with Mona Khan Company and later started contemporary dance. He realized he could express himself outside of Bollywood’s traditional male roles. Today, he teaches "Bollywood Heels," a mix of Kathak gestures and jazz performed in 5-inch heels.
Inspired by James Brown and the Black Panthers, the Black Resurgents are one of the dance crews who pioneered Oakland's boogaloo dance, the foundation of many other funk styles. However, their cultural contributions are little-known outside of the Bay. Meet these veteran dancers passing on their tradition to a new a generation, bridging the gap between boogaloo, pop-locking and turf dancing.
Oakland, California, home to the Black Panthers, also birthed the pioneering funk-driven freestyle dance Oakland Boogaloo, characterized by strong hits and poses. In the late 1960s and 1970s, before the emergence of hip hop, the city’s African American youth took inspiration from James Brown, the Temptations, Charlie Chaplin, cartoon characters, and sci-fi robots, and created a repertoire of original moves like the “Dime Stop,” the “Hit, the “Mack Pose” and “the Ditallion.” Youth in nearby San Francisco and Richmond soon developed variants of boogaloo, respectively known as strutting and robotting. Today, these techniques are collectively known as “the funk styles,” owing to their development during the funk era. Despite its pioneering status, Oakland boogaloo’s cultural contributions are little-known outside of Bay Area dance circles.
In this lesson, students will investigate how teenagers became a distinct demographic group with its own identity in the postwar years, and, in turn, how their influence helped push Rock and Roll into the mainstream. In so doing, they helped secure Rock and Roll's place as the most important popular music of the 20th century.
This lesson will investigate the role of the media, its influence on young people, and the growing anxiety about teenagers' newfound independence in the 1950s. Students will explore primary source materials related to movies, music, and comic books that impacted teenage culture. Learning about the 1954 Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, students will read and form opinions on actual congressional testimony. Additional resources will include the trailer for Blackboard Jungle and a 1956 performance of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers' "I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent."
In this lesson, students will examine the emergence of the teen idols in the late 1950swith a particular focus on Dion and the Belmontsto understand how mainstream culture promoted the image of the "good citizen" teen during an era of increased anxiety surrounding youth culture. Students will listen to recordings of Dion and the Belmonts' "A Teenager in Love," as well as Dion's later recording "The Wanderer," in addition to viewing a 1958 instructional film outlining school dress codes, a 1953 trailer for The Wild One, a selection of teen magazines, and performances by Jerry Lee Lewis and Connie Francis.