The Theatre for Youth Program is committed to involving the community in practicing theatre and drama. Community outreach is an important aspect of the academic mission, and theatre for youth is a logical avenue to forge links between education and aesthetic experiences:

• By offering lab classes in drama in education where students can directly experience the power and educational values of drama in working with young people, rather than creating artificial class simulations;
• By offering advanced drama in education classes where students practice in the actual classroom;
• By offering theatre productions that both travel to the schools (TIE) and invite the schools to the theatre (TYA), providing workshops and pre- and post-performance materials that might enhance and deepen the experience; and
• By offering ongoing research from both practical and theoretical perspectives that will continue to inform the field, making it actively monitor and reevaluate its own ideological, cultural, and social pursuits.

TCSA (Theatre for Cultural & Social Awareness) is a service learning/outreach initiative of the Department of Theatre & Drama that fuses live theatre performances with staff training efforts to address sensitive subject matter for U.S. businesses and institutions.   For our purposes, sensitive subject matter is loosely defined as topics that demand a greater social awareness but lack meaningful discourse due to their volatile nature and/or historical legacies.  Students engage in critical analyses of plays, films, personal experiences and current events surrounding race, gender, sexual orientation, power and privilege, as well as theoretical frameworks for facilitation.  The program is dedicated to providing quality theatrical trainings that are effective and non-threatening experiences for schools, communities and workplace environments in preparation for living in an authentically inclusive world. 

How does it Work? / Methods

The creative process is a collaborative one between the organization and the TCSA staff.  TCSA relies on real-life experiences, coupled with improvisation and theatre for social justice pedagogies, as catalysts for the creation of scripted training materials.  Each program is thematically structured to explore the complexities of opposing perspectives on a given issue without judging or perpetuating a particular viewpoint. The goal is to encourage safe and facilitated conversations that value individual uniqueness while discovering the common threads of our existence. 

 Results

In order to refine analytical and facilitative skills, students must first learn how to talk about the issues themselves.  By approaching the material through characterizations, students step outside of their own experiences and develop a deeper understanding and respect of perspectives that may contradict their own.  This speaks to the transformational power of live theatre and performance.

 Courses

Introduction to Theatre for Cultural & Social Awareness 357

Pre-requisite: Sophomore Status and/or consent of Instructor

Advanced Theatre for Cultural & Social Awareness 557

            Pre-requisite: 357 and/or consent of Instructor

 Past Collaborations

Harley Davidson, Miller Brewing, WE Energies and Blood Center of SE Wisconsin. UW-Madison collaborations include Yale University, UW Hospitals & Clinics, National Conference On Race & Ethnicity (NCORE), UW School of Business, Wisconsin Alumni Association and The Overture Center.

The Undergraduate Theatre Association (UTA) is the official representative voice of the undergraduate Theatre & Drama students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. UTA also serves to provide production and performance opportunities for undergraduates with their own staging.

UTA is a registered student organization with the UW-Madison Student Organization Office and is sponsored by the UW-Madison Department of Theatre & Drama.

Membership is NOT limited to theatre majors. All registered UW-Madison undergrads with a love for theatre are invited to join.