The Alliance for Drama Education (ADE) invites kinesthetic, out-of-seat learning for students and teachers via drama activities that maximize engagement of body, voice and imagination. ADE offers teams of two teaching artists in the classroom at the same time to model active listening, demonstrate activities, side coach and provide individual attention to challenging students while the lesson continues under guidance of the 2nd partner. We customize curriculum to align with DOE common core in Fine Arts, Language Arts, Verbal communication, Social Studies and Life Skills. Partnering with teachers, ADE creates a supportive playing field so students can learn cognitive concepts while practicing critical thinking, agility in judgment, creativity, imagination, cooperation, effective communication and thinking on your feet. ADE’s curriculum components (Rules, Tools, Performer P’s, and Audience A’s) provide a foundation for responsible and safe behavior as students gain self-confidence, social skills, and respect for others while stretching to “do their best.” Our culmination programs fill school cafeterias with parents eager to see what their children are learning through the performing arts. Dramatic work is fun. Not just fun and games but “fun and fright” – learning to overcome stage fright under the guidance of skilled mentors.
The Alliance for Drama Education has been providing drama services to Hawaiʻi’s K-12 children since 1982. The longevity of our community of practice is grounded in the leadership of original founder, and T-Shirt Theatre Director George Kon, anchoring our homegrown teaching artists’ ʻohana. Our mission: “To help young Hawaiʻi rehearse for life by mastering performance skills needed to win jobs, justice and joy.”
The Artistic Teaching Partners (ATP) Roster is an adjudicated directory of Hawai‘i professional teaching artists qualified to conduct in-depth residencies in educational settings. Each artist or arts organization has a page in the directory with contact information, a short bio, and an artist statement. The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts draws from this roster for arts education programs including Art Bento at the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum and Artists in the Schools.
