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Outreach Programs

C.A.R.E. (Center Artists Reaching Everywhere)

Program Purpose: To provide an opportunity for artistic enrichment to neighborhoods and institutions in the Tampa Bay area that do not have the means to access our programming on-site. Community outreach visits are presented by national artists and Patel Conservatory faculty and staff.

For many people, a visit to the Performing Arts Center can be difficult. TBPAC has addressed this challenge by “taking the show on the road.” These programs are selected based upon areas of socio/economic challenge, geographic or cultural/community need. Visiting national artists, local artists and Patel Conservatory faculty perform at schools, hospitals, community centers and shelters, migrant program locations, and other sites throughout the Bay area. Outreach artists, performances and presentations include but not limited to community outreaches by the National Association of Black Storytellers, Playing Around Theater Co., One Drum Company, Retumba, Shumah Music, Raquel Ache’, A Dos Opera Company. During the 04/05 season, TBPAC served more than 8,000 audience members through C.A.R.E. outreach visits. 

A History of C.A.R.E. Program Activities

The following lists examples of artists that visit schools and non-profit social service agencies serving predominantly low-income school children, juvenile delinquent correction facilities residents, children from families who are victims of domestic violence, severely emotionally disturbed children and pediatric patients. Outreaches last about one hour, and are either preceded or followed by related hands-on activities. Typically, artists present their outreaches in a gym, auditorium or multi-purpose room so that several classrooms at once can experience the performance. Audience groups can range from 30 to 200, and in some cases 800, students.

Before or following these outreaches, lesson plans and activities are implemented by school or agency staff utilizing special study guides, which have been written specifically for each performing artist. In cooperation with County School District Field Trip Office contacts, these study guides are developed by TBPAC ’s Education and Humanities staff to integrate FCAT curriculum standards and Sunshine State Standards. Study guides contain basic information about the outreach and include specific classroom activities that integrate age-appropriate curriculum studies with the performance or outreach. For example, a study guide about Step Afrika! will include lessons of the geography of Africa, lessons about the history of dance and dance styles, dance etiquette and customs around the world, and lessons of body mechanics and the physics of motion using studies of human anatomy. Each study guide is specifically tailored to the type of performance or outreach to be provided and includes learning activities that can be incorporated into classroom schedules either prior to a performance or afterward.

All outreach artists and their study guides are related to one or more of the following curriculum topics: Language Arts and English, History and Social Studies, Math and Science, Drama, Health, Family and/or Community Issues, Arts, Music, and Rhythm and Movement. Specific learning activities from the performance related study guides include direct interactive participation with the performers (e.g., in certain large puppet performances), word games, writing assignments, musical instrument making, improvisational speaking games, and homework exercises that require study and writing skill development. Finally, students who participate in outreach activities are asked to provide an age-appropriate, written response to the session. This exercise itself helps develop writing and critical thinking skills, while providing valuable feedback.

Some C.A.R.E. Artists

Doug Cooney — Nationally acclaimed playwright, novelist and performer. Cooney is the author of novels for young readers including The Beloved Dearly and I Know Who Likes You. The Beloved Dearly was produced as a youth musical by Lincoln Center Institute. His outreach residencies provide a unique class that allows you to write and perform your own material. In this inspiring class, you create original dramatic material using events in your own life and discover unique approaches to performing your work. The outreaches are appropriate for Grades 9-12 students and Adults.

Ellen Jacoby — Ellen Jacoby is one of the most in-demand casting directors in the industry. She has cast for episodes of The OC, and Invasion for Warner Brothers and is the casting director for the current hit television show CSI: Miami and such films as There's Something About Mary and The Birdcage. As the Patel Conservatory Resident Casting Director, Jacoby conducts castings at TBPAC for film, television series and radio/TV commercials as opportunities arise. She also teaches classes and workshops each session.

Eugenie Bonderant — Bondurant has had a dynamic career that has ranged from high fashion runway model in Paris, New York and Germany to being a film, television and commercial actress to a well-respected and successful on-camera coach. Along with acting and teaching, she has a bachelor’s degree in finance. From children to adults, her students have soared in achievement with many having gone to work in many principal roles in film, television and commercials. She has been able to bring her experience as an actress forward to help children, teenagers and adults. Her classes help those not only interested in furthering or starting a career in commercials, television and film but also they help those experiencing shyness, stage fright and awkwardness in front of groups.

Ranney Lawrence — "ranney" is an internationally renowned stand-up comedian and award-winning poet. His hip conviction and emotional slams have won over audiences at poetry slams, featured events and his memorable one-man shows. He has been featured everywhere, from London's The Comedy Store, Greenbelt's Comedy Connection to Tampa's Improv and Side Splitters. He also has headlined at the World Famous Apollo, Dublin's Comedy Cellar and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. "ranney" won the Universal Poets award in Ybor (2000), Weekly Planet's Best Actor (2003) and was one of five nominees for Farrago's International Poet award in London. He has showcased six different one-man shows in the past five years.

A Dos Opera Company — This company is formed by two entrepreneurial women with more than 20 years of experience in opera, theater and musical education: Gisella Monclova and Iris Gonzalez. The company conducts opera informances, workshops, performances and community outreaches for children grades 3-8. Often joining A Dos is a cast of professional singers and actors from the Patel Conservatory and Greater Tampa Bay area. One such artist is Nancy Garma, Patel Conservatory voice teacher. Garma was a winning soloist of New Orleans Civic Symphony Contest. She has worked with the New Orleans Opera Association, Mobile Opera Guild and Tampa Bay Opera Company.

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Access Arts 2007 (formerly Community Arts Ensemble)

The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center’s 2007 Access Arts is a proactive plan focused on engaging overlooked children and their families in the performing arts. Access Arts provides scholarships and program funds for recruiting these deserving children from throughout Tampa Bay’s diverse communities into a wide variety of performing arts education opportunities available at the Patel Conservatory. Through the Conservatory’s many school, community and agency partnerships, children in grades 1-12 who have an interest in learning about the performing arts will be identified, interviewed and enrolled in the age-appropriate classes, camps and workshops that will help develop the skills they desire for achieving their dreams.

Beginning with the Summer Camps & Classes, Access Arts will function as a springboard to launch scholarship recipients into the Patel Conservatory’s year-round arts education offerings. Students recruited through the Access Arts Program will participate in the same offerings as children not receiving this assistance, and all students will experience the same seamless admissions procedures and guidance. The Access Arts Program allows up to three weeks of scholarship/program funds.

In addition to providing new and enriching learning experiences for overlooked children, Access Arts will focus on building bridges of understanding among all the diverse communities of Tampa Bay. The overall outcome of this initiative is to help all children studying the performing arts at the Patel Conservatory to dream, reach, discover and create beneficial experiences and outstanding futures together.

While learning performing arts skills at the Patel Conservatory, students’ work evolves into a rehearsal process that leads to final performances or student showcases attended by families and friends. More than eight types of summer camps of varying times and dates and 40 different courses with varying degrees of commitment are available. Previous performing arts training is not required for entry level programs, and students can progress at a rate that suits their abilities while they achieve the experience required to advance their studies.

Summer Information Sheet
Letter from Student & Community Relations Manager

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Extended Community Residencies

Program Purpose: To provide in-depth opportunities for artistic enrichment to neighborhoods and institutions in the Bay area that do not have the means to access our programming on-site. This program differs from community outreach visits because artists and recipients are engaged in multiple sessions and multiple activities, allowing the opportunity for a unique artistic impact on the students.

Community residencies are five-day, in-school performances and interactive programs presented by performers who specialize in arts education related to their particular arts discipline. We offer three different outreach residencies to community schools that have a need for arts education and are not in the mainstream of arts training offered by the school system. These residencies are offered each year, from November through May. 

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Broadway/Education Initiative

Program Purpose: To provide the opportunity for local elementary, middle and high school students to connect with touring Broadway professionals by creating educational and mission-based projects. This program also builds new audiences by ensuring each participant attends the corresponding Broadway show. 

Each season TBPAC ’s education and humanities department coordinates with the press agents of touring Broadway shows to develop mission-based learning experiences tied to each of the Broadway Series performances. These outreach activities are appropriate for either elementary, middle and/or and high school students and can range from essay and design contests and musical theater projects to cultural history programs, music composition, dance and technical observations. Student outreach activities take place in the weeks prior to a Broadway show arriving at TBPAC. Once the show is in town, cast and crew members may provide the students with a presentation about the history and design of the show and a back stage tour. 

Kids Night on Broadway (KNOB) is held in conjunction with this initiative and serves as an extended learning experience held one hour prior to the corresponding show. KNOB is free to the public and offers a platform for showcase of Broadway/Education Initiative Projects, live entertainment, a clown, games and prizes all in promotion of the featured Broadway Show and its educational initiatives. Participating students and their parents are then given an opportunity to attend the Broadway show for free or at a deep discount. Often, students’ final projects are displayed or presented in the lobby of Carol Morsani Hall prior to the Broadway performance. Last season 250 students received in-depth backstage tours and had opportunities to meet and shadow members of the cast and crew.

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Conservatory to Go

Program Purpose: To provide a conservatory curriculum program at select schools and community organizations interested in introducing their students to the Patel Conservatory experience.

The Conservatory will work with select schools to offer a curriculum class taught by conservatory faculty at the school location. The class may be conducted daily or weekly for an extended session and it can follow the exact curriculum of an on-site class or be customized. This fee-based program is designed to introduce schools to Conservatory offerings, to supplement school curriculum and encourage students to “bridge” from their school setting and ultimately participate in programs and performances on TBPAC ’s campus.

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"From Page to Stage" Literacy Project

Program Purpose: To partner with educators and enhance literacy curricula for school-age children by engaging them in interactive reading projects that demonstrate for students the links between literacy and the performing arts.

Each year approximately 250 students participate in this essay contest program that is directly related to selected literature based Field Trip shows. Before attending the related performances, students read the books connected to their selected Field Trip show and write essays or submit art projects about their reading experience. Students’ essays and art projects are based on questions sent to them inside the corresponding show’s study guide, and teachers submit the completed works to TBPAC ’s education staff for review. The young authors of the winning essays are introduced on stage, awarded a copy of the corresponding book, one of a similar nature or one by the same author, and the teachers of these students are awarded a gift certificate to a local bookstore. All Page To Stage students receive program buttons or stickers that recognize their reading and cultural experiences.

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Opera Outreaches

Program purpose: To introduce the history, tradition and artistic components of opera to new audiences both young and old.

Opera outreaches introduce approximately 2,000 young people each year to the world of opera. Selected teachers and performers visit several area schools to lecture and perform, and then students visit TBPAC for a backstage tour and to attend a dress rehearsal of a grand opera. Libretto, language, super titles, set, costumes, chorus, orchestra, conductor and other elements of the Opera are discussed. This program is generally offered in conjunction with the overview of one of our produced shows. Schools are selected based upon interest and in some instances in an effort to diversify a particular community’s exposure to the spectrum of the world of the art. 

As part of Opera Outreach, Patel Conservatory has made availavle a fee opera study guide. Download the free Romeo & Juliet study guide! The study guide is 9.7 MB in pdf format. This is a large file and may take some time to download.

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Arts Enhancers

Informances! Lecture Series

Program Purpose: To enrich our patrons with in-depth educational experiences related to corresponding performances at TBPAC and to expand our patrons’ knowledge and appreciation of TBPAC ’s programming.

Informances! lectures are free pre-performance lectures and post-performance “talk-backs” that provide an educational, behind-the-scenes look at artists and art forms for selected performances at TBPAC. The program includes lecture/demonstration programs for grand operas and other targeted shows hosted by local teachers and performers. Each season, approximately 800 people attend Informances! held in conjunction with Broadway shows, operas, plays and dance performances at TBPAC. All Informances! are free and open to the public.

Field Trip Study Guides

Program Purpose: To integrate the arts into existing curricula and enhance critical thinking and the application of life skills by providing educators with comprehensive resource materials related to Field Trip performances.

Educational study guides prepared by educators, specialists and the performing companies themselves providing in-depth background material on the Field Trip performances, curriculum connectors for teachers, and related activities for the students. The study guides encourage young people to study vocabulary words, read books, and write original stories and reviews. Curriculum connectors, Sunshine State Standards and FCAT links are included in the study guides. Teachers and home school groups can also access the study guides online.

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School Partnerships

Program Purpose: To develop ongoing, progressive arts educational experiences with select Bay area schools and community organizations. 

At the beginning of each academic year, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center partners with several under-served area schools and community organizations in the region to provide artists for classes and workshops, to help design curriculum and to offer a variety of ongoing unique arts experiences for teachers, students and their families.  Partnerships for the 2006-2007 season were awarded to Barbara Muller Elementary School, Bay Crest Elementary School, Belle Witter Elementary School, Gulf Middle School, Inverness Middle School, Kenly Elementary School, LaVoy Exceptional Center, Mendez Exceptional Center, Metropolitan Ministries Academy and USF Patel Charter School.

The purpose of the program is to develop ongoing, progressive arts educational experiences with select bay area agencies, community organizations and schools.  All selected sites will receive an in-depth partnership with TBPAC.  Each will be provided a minimum of three exceptional educational outreach experiences.  Selection criteria include but are not limited to application completion, demographic requirements, geographic location and special needs.  

What is our mission?
To provide high-quality arts enhancement programs for local organizations, the Patel Conservatory at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center is accepting applications for partnership status for the 2007-2008 season.

What is a partnership school?
A partnership site is a public, private, charter or magnet school, or a community organization or agency selected by TBPAC for an in-depth arts relationship based on need and expressed commitment.  TBPAC will offer partnership status to selected sites and organizations, and work with each one to develop an arts education program.  Through multiple sessions involving nationally touring artists and Patel Conservatory faculty, partnership sites will be able to provide students and children more extensive exposure to the arts, and strengthen the arts education experience.  The partnership program is one of TBPAC’s many arts education initiatives that combined, serve over 60,000 youth and adults annually. 

What criteria are needed for our school or organization to apply?
Your school or organization may qualify for partnership status if it can demonstrate at least two of the following criteria:

  • A. If a school, Title I status — Schools with more than 50% of their population receiving free or reduced lunch.  If a community agency or organization, you must demonstrate that you are serving a disadvantaged, underprivileged or underserved population of the community.
  • B. Transportation challenges — Sites in rural areas, off bus lines, lack of transportation budget
  • C. Community and artistic need — Schools/community centers/social service organizations addressing after-school needs, supplemental arts training in schools that lack arts curriculum
  • D. Personnel, staff and/or faculty-demonstrated desire for arts training — Faculty or staff request for developing projects with TBPAC
  • E. Organization Coordinator – Each partnership must have a proactive, willing member of the staff and/or faculty to serve as a liaison and point person for the program.
  • F. Agree to adhere to rules of partnership as set forth upon selection, which will include timely communication, participation and accountability.

How are partnership schools served by the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center?
TBPAC’s Education Department will coordinate a minimum of three quality arts experiences per year as selected by the partnership organization and TBPAC staff.  Our commitment to our partnership sites is to provide high-quality supplemental arts training, unique performing arts experiences at TBPAC and your site and to introduce and cultivate your students’ interest in the arts.  All activities are provided through the TBPAC Education Department and involve nationally touring artists and Patel Conservatory faculty.  After the partnership sites have been selected based on the criteria above the Organization Co-coordinator will select arts offerings from our list of customized programs.  Offerings include a wide range of workshops, master classes and outreaches with nationally touring artists, tickets and related curriculum materials to many of TBPAC’s performances, as well as backstage tours, free performances, extended classes and other arts experiences for all grade levels.  These offerings may be one-time opportunities or extended residency programs.  Certain programs are designed to include complimentary tickets to shows for a specified number of students and chaperones.  Ticket purchases for additional students is an option, but not required.  Organization Coordinators and TBPAC Education staff will define the frequency of visits and disciplines of instruction on an individual basis.

What if our school is not selected as a partnership site this year?
Organizations that are not selected for the 2007-2008 season may reapply next year and may opt to be a Community Connector site, which will be served at least once during the upcoming year.  Becoming a Connector site is a good way of determining if a partnership would be more beneficial to your school or organization.  The Education Department remains committed to serving new and diverse audiences.  NOTE: Properly submitted applications, regardless of selection as a TBPAC Education Partner, may be entitled to one educational outreach from the Patel Conservatory during the 2007-2008 season.  Selection will be based on availability, and determined by the application and the return date.

When is the deadline and how can my school apply?
The deadline to apply for 2007-2008 partnership status is Oct. 1, 2007.  The best method for securing partnership status is to obtain the support of as many organizational leaders and school faculty members as possible, especially principals or executive directors (who will need to sign the artistic statement), assistant principals, team leaders and teachers. 

Please complete the application and fax to 813.222.6459, Attention: Sheri Whittington,

or mail to:

Sheri Whittington
Manager of Education Projects
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center,
P.O. BOX 518, Tampa, FL 33601-0518

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Dr. Pallavi Patel Performing Arts Conservatory
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
1010 North W.C. MacInnes Place
Tampa, Florida 33602

Events, dates, times, performers and prices subject to change without notice.
© 2008 Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center