In-School Residencies
School Year 2024-2025
Bringing literacy to life through creative arts with The Coterie
Literacy based residencies for 1st-12th Grade Classrooms
Contact slaaker@coterietheatre.org or (816) 994-8832
Reader's Theatre, Grades 1-4
- Students will work with a professional teaching artist to rehearse and perform a short script based on a traditional folktale, focusing on reading fluency, intonation, flow, and expression.
- A teacher consultation will occur beforehand to ensure we serve the needs of your class and to select a multicultural folktale from our list.
- The residency will align with Missouri and Kansas English Language Arts and Theatre Arts standards.
- Script options include Anansi and Five, The Cheetah and The Lazy Hunter, The Deer People, Why the Sun and Moon Live In The Sky, and The Chanchasa Bird.
Three 50-minute sessions can be arranged to suit your schedule
$300 per classroom sized group
10% discount for 4 or more classrooms
A mileage fee may be charged for travel outside the Kansas City metro area
Voices in History, Grades 4-8
- Students will work with a professional teaching artist to write and perform a short first person monologue about a historical hero.
- Using existing monologues as examples, students will analyze what makes a good monologue and demonstrate that understanding through their own original writing.
- A teacher consultation will occur beforehand to ensure we serve the needs of your class.
- The residency will align with Missouri and Kansas English Language Arts and Theatre Arts standards, and will offer students the option to share their work with each other.
Three 50-minute sessions can be arranged to suit your schedule
$300 per classroom sized group
10% discount for 4 or more classrooms
A mileage fee may be charged for travel outside the Kansas City metro area
Electric Poe, Grades 8-12
- Students will view a recorded performance of either The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, or The Tell-Tale Heart (determined by classroom teacher) from The Coterie’s production of Electric Poe starring professional actor and teaching artist R.H. Wilhoit, underscored by musician Rex Hobart.
- A professional teaching artist will then join students in person to explore the historical and cultural context that inspired Poe, as well as the use of symbolism and imagery to create lasting impact.
- Writing to composer Rex Hobart’s Electric Poe underscore as inspiration, students will create their own moody masterpiece in the form of a dramatic scene or monologue
- A teacher consultation will occur beforehand to ensure we serve the needs of your class.
- The residency will align with Missouri and Kansas English Language Arts and Theatre Arts standards, and will offer students the option to share their work with each other.
Three 50-minute sessions can be arranged to suit your schedule
$300 per classroom sized group
10% discount for 4 or more classrooms
A mileage fee may be charged for travel outside the Kansas City metro area
Young Playwrights Workshop, Grades 7-12
- Young writers will learn to devise dialog and action, scriptwriting format, build characters, write two monologues, create a setting, and begin the creation of a scene.
- Following this teen playwrighting residency, participants may be selected to develop their plays through The Coterie’s Young Playwrights Roundtable.
- The workshop can be conducted in-person in your school or at another site (often the Westport CoffeeHouse is available at no additional charge).
- Students will need a device to use an image search engine (such as Google), along with a pencil and paper or a laptop.
- The residency will align with Missouri and Kansas English Language Arts and Theatre Arts standards, and will offer students the option to share their work with each other.
Three 50-minute sessions, two 2.5-hour sessions, OR one 5-hour sessions can be arranged to suit your schedule
$300-$450 per classroom sized group
10% discount for 4 or more classrooms
A mileage fee may be charged for travel outside the Kansas City metro area
Educator Testimonials
“I had the honor of bringing The Coterie’s Electric Poe Immersion workshop into my hybrid classroom. The three day experience covered a vast amount of significant material. Great for students to see how many ways imagery and theatrical effects can be interpreted and support text. It’s an opportunity for students to write and create themselves! I highly recommend this workshop for grades 8-12.”
— Tracy Terstreip-Herber, Performing Arts Chair at Pembroke Hill
“I had the honor of bringing actor Hollis Wilhoit and The Coterie’s Electric Poe Immersion workshop into my hybrid classroom. The three day experience covered a vast amount of significant material. An actor’s perspective of workshopping and performing a solo piece of theatre adapted from 3rd person literature – many topics for discussion within that. Great for students to see how many ways imagery and theatrical effects can be interpreted and support text. It’s an opportunity for students to write and create themselves! Along the way, Hollis’ questions, sharing and feedback was exceptional. I highly recommend this workshop for grades 8-12.”
— Tracy Terstreip-Herber, Performing Arts Chair at Pembroke Hill
“It was wonderful! My students really enjoyed it (Electric Poe immersion) and Hollis did a great job presenting and teaching them about playwriting. Something I would definitely do again!”
— Lisa Jensen, Gifted Teacher at Leawood Middle School
“I loved so much about the Reader’s Theatre program that we participated in. The warm ups were always fun and engaging. The progression from casting, reading through, and then blocking kept our daily activities fresh and brought out something new each day. Even my shyest student came out of her shell during this activity. The program was flexible and met our needs with materials/technology. My students looked forward to seeing Amanda every single morning!”
— Jayme Keyser, 4th grade teacher at KIPP Endeavour Academy
“Once a year, I get to take kids to a workshop provided by The Coterie Theatre (Young Playwrights Workshop)…It is a peek into the future. Throughout my time as a teacher this has been a constant place of hopefulness. Every facilitator I have seen run this workshop is phenomenal. Making space for students to work through their ideas is everything… There are no tests here. There are not wrong answers in this work… This is where better humans come from. This is critical thinking. This is creativity. This is education.”
— Arrownhead Middle School Teacher
“The Coterie Theatre’s virtual immersion, Electric Poe, was absolutely wonderful! Our teacher for the three day event, Hollis Wilhoit, was able to engage students who were working both in class and remotely at the same time, while covering specific Language Arts standards we had asked him to address. … The students loved working with Hollis and put forth a ton of creative effort to complete something they hoped he would enjoy reading. Hollis validated students’ ideas, while also pushing them to think outside the box, and they all appreciated the helpful feedback he provided throughout the event. I would highly encourage teachers to take advantage of this wonderful virtual field trip. Despite the frustrations of our current learning model, all of my students genuinely looked forward to this fun change of pace each day!”
— Megan Komp, 8th grade ELA, Summit Trail Middle School
“Now when I write, I think a lot more about detail… I’m more confident in my writing.”
— Trailridge Student
“[I’d] never heard of this program and I thought it was good to get my advanced theatre kids out of school and learn something they did not know how to do… [Reaching the Write Minds] not only did that, but it was fun! ALL of my kids not only said they enjoyed it, but they loved it… great instructor… patient and kind and knew how to deal with them! They wanted to share everything…!”
— Timothy Haynes, Grandview High
