Bring the stage to your class, and your class to the stage!
WonderQuest and GTA are happy to help teachers enhance the educational experience for their students with a variety of tools.
Field Trips to see Live Theatre
We see it every year: children who have only seen TV and videos are dumbfounded by live actors who actually look at and respond to them, children who laugh and gasp as they identify with their favorite character – and then get a hug from them after the show. Live theatre just captures minds and hearts in a way nothing on a screen can.
WonderQuest is fortunate to have the loyal following of many principals and teachers who send their students year after year to experience WonderQuest's living literature in the historic setting of Brenau University's Pearce Auditorium. And we activly solicit their feedback to determine how to make the experience an even more valuable teaching tool. Students frequently picnic on lawn in front of the theatre, have their pictures taken with the cast and come for autographs. And after 25 years of working with schools, it is real validation for WonderQuest to see those starry-eyed young patrons return as GTA Theatre majors and patrons.
Performance Study Guide
The WonderQuest staff creates a carefully-crafted Study Guide for each production with useful information about the show. Teachers print out the Study Guide as a resource for preparing students to get the MOST out of the performance.
Each Study Guide includes information about the play, the author, the actors and theatre itself. We include Fun Facts and fun things to do, as well. Study Guides are available 2 to 3 weeks before the performances. Click here for the Snow Dragon STUDY GUIDE. Click here for the Snow Dragon STORY.
In-School Performance Previews
Once you make a reservation for your class to attend a WonderQuest show -- or for a student matinee of a GTA mainstage show -- your class can get the "inside scoop" before they see the play through a visit IN YOUR CLASSROOM by a costumed professional from the show!
This professional serves as a "living study guide" who will present the background of the play, and prepare your students for their theatre experience.
Touring Repertory Company
The Gainesville Theatre Alliance Repertory Company is a small touring group made up of five of our strongest actors, which offers two shows to area schools every other year. For 2006-07, Rep Company performed ALICE IN WONDERLAND and OEDIPUS REX to over 100 school and community audiences. These shows will come to your school, community center, library or hospital FREE or for a small fee.
Past shows include TALESPINNERS, JUMPING MOUSE and DRAGON FLIGHTS. For older students, we have offered classics like MEDEA and ELECTRA, or historical adventures like HEADING WEST.
The Reportory Company will tour again during the 2008-2009 school year.
Workshops and Demonstrations
GTA faculty, staff, guest artists and theatre majors are all available resources for you, as educators, to use in your curriculum plan. We can provide helpful, entertaining programs for both secondary and elementary students, in a variety of subjects. We have done storytelling and talks on the wardrobe and manners of different cultures over time.
For more details on scheduling an imagination-grabbing, memorable workshop, click on WORKSHOPS & DEMONSTRATIONS