Planning The ProjectThe Beach Haven School Staff met with Liz Winters from Youth Audiences (YA) in September to plan the project for the Artist in Residence Grant. Since Beach Haven School already offered Art, Music, and Band as specials, we wanted to expose our students to a new “art” form. Experiencing a whirlwind of emotions from the reopening of the school in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, we wanted our students to “tell their story of the storm”. Keying in on the student’s excellent writing skills, we targeted, storytelling and drama as the focus of the work to be done with the artist which would result in a culminating student performance to be held at the Surflight Theater, Beach Haven in June of 2014.

YA selected Poet and Playwright, Eloise Bruce as the long-term Artist-in-Residence. Eloise works as a teaching artist for Young Audiences of NJ and Playwright’s Theatre. She also teaches multi-genre writing to middle school writers at the Arts and Education Center. Bruce is dedicated to expanding the role of the arts in education. 

The Beach Haven School residency (ten days) focuses on the student’s experiences and encounters during and after the storm and expressing those in the form of arts infused literary arts. A variety of writing activities are planned, such as: poetry, interviews with first responders, comparing and contrasting of major storms, and role-playing scripts of news and weather reports. The students will write a script, sing and perform it, as well as make costumes and scenery. The docu-play will be a collaboration between the artist, the students, and each grade level teacher. The performance “WELCOME HOME” will be open to the community and will be held at the local Surflight Theater in June.

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