The Yawkey Student Matinee Series
Students from Greater Boston and beyond may attend WFT@BU performances through The Yawkey Student Matinee Series. Schools bring student groups to weekday matinee performances during the school year. Young people also have a chance to meet and interact with cast members after each performance.
Download our 2019/2020 Field Trip Flyer to learn more about our upcoming season of shows and scheduled student performances. Please note some dates may already be booked.
For more information about The Yawkey Student Matinee Series, or to discuss having your school join us, contact Jamie Aznive at 617-353-1451 or jaznive@bu.edu
Study Guides & Social Stories
Teachers can enrich their children’s theatre experience with our Study Guides, prepared with helpful background information for each production and available for download from the Resources page, beginning two weeks before the opening of each show.
Social stories were originally developed for children on the autism spectrum, but we have found that they are helpful for preparing any child who is very young or has never been to the theatre before. WFT@BU offers this general social story, as well as a customized one for each of our productions on our Resources page. We hope you will find them helpful!
School and Community Partnerships
WFT@BU partners with schools and community organizations through performance attendance, drama workshops for students, and professional development workshops that train teachers to integrate drama into the classroom. For additional information contact Jeri Hammond at 617-353-2994 or WFTEd@bu.edu
School partnerships are the fastest-growing program within the WFT@BU Education Program. School Partnerships usually begin by framing a public, private, or home school’s attendance at a stage production with a pre- and post-show educational package called a DramaShop.
Participating teachers receive a WFT@BU Study Guide before attending the play, with narratives connecting the play to history and/or literature, as well as numerous drama-related activities that are fun to do, connect to specific Massachusetts learning standards, and prepare the students and teachers to more deeply appreciate the play.
Our School Partnerships are designed to deepen in subsequent years, as the schools and the theatre get to know one another better. Once teachers, administrators, and parents begin to see how students are positively influenced by their interactions with cast members and artist-educators, schools will often ask for classroom workshops, artist-in-residence programs, and teacher professional development.
The goal of every School Partnership is to eventually move from direct services for students to teacher professional development. When classroom teachers develop the ability to infuse drama-related teaching and learning strategies across the academic curriculum, not only does their teaching become energized, but they are better able to serve the needs of ALL students. And their drama expertise resides in the school culture, not outside of it.
Community partnerships pair WFT@BU with non-school organizations, such as church groups, senior citizen centers, out-of-school programs, community theatres, and youth groups.
A good example is our community partnership with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusett (GSEM). The WFT@BU-GSEM Partnership began in April, 2002, when Girl Scouts from throughout greater Boston came to watch two deaf teenagers star in our production of The Trumpet of the Swan. Their troop leaders received Study Guides with descriptions of many drama activities connected to the play. They also participated in the DramaShop, which consists of a pre-show workshop and discussion about the play and a post-show question-and-answer session with members of the cast.
Rather than making specific connections to State learning standards as the school partnerships do, community partnerships use the study guides and DramaShop to connect with teamwork, character-building, and other life skills valued by community organizations like the GSEM.
If your school or community organization is interested in working with WFT@BU to create a collaborative partnership, please contact Jeri Hammond at 617-353-2994 or WFTEd@bu.edu.
