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Students in the course Children's Theatre, taught by Assistant Professor of Performance and Communication Arts Ann Marie G. Halstead, worked with fifth- and sixth-graders in Canton's St. Mary's School, giving the course a community-based-learning component. The students' work helped the school meet a state requirement that they otherwise would not have met, due to its resources.

Throughout the semester, the students worked with children in facilitating a series of theatre exercises. In December, St. Lawrence students performed I Think I Can, by Bruce Bowden, Barry Miller and Kathryn Schultz Miller, in the Black Box Theatre on campus; students, parents and teachers were invited to the special performance. The play encourages children to try things that they may think they can't acheive.

The 2008 event was the second such project undertaken by Halstead. It forms the basis of her article, "Service Learning and the Arts: Community, Design, and Impact," in the journal Compact Impact: The Journal of Texas Campus Compact, a case study of how the arts can be used in community-based learning.

More: Arts at St. Lawrence

Posted: January 10, 2008