New Village Arts Theatre Presents VERBITAS Documentary Theatre With NVA

New Village Arts Theatre is proud to announce the performance dates for the VERBITAS residency across three local schools: Carlsbad High School, Sage Creek High School, and Army and Navy Academy. Program creator Blake McCarty writes the original scripts and teaching artist Monique Gaffney co-directs. Professional lighting designers will also support the production: David Romero and Michael Rathbun.

VERBITAS is an annual residency serving Carlsbad schools currently in its third year of production, supported by grants from the California Arts Council, The Nordson Foundation, and The Sahm Family Foundation.

Students discuss and examine current events and social trends and then choose a topic that is relevant to them, learn best interview practices, and interview local community members with experience or knowledge on the given topic. The result is an original performance with word-for-word dialogue. This verbatim and documentary-theatre style approach helps students examine sociopolitical issues and current events while strengthening their communication skills through community engagement. "This program has a way of engaging students, their families and the audiences to social issues in a way that promotes empathy and deeper conversations," says Associate Artistic Director Nadia Guevara. "It never ceases to amaze me how students and audiences alike feel changed and enlightened."

Blake McCarty, creator of the VERBITAS program and scriptwriter, is an artist and educator who can be seen working throughout San Diego. He is also the co-founder and Executive Artistic Director of Blindspot Collective, a theatre company producing radically inclusive programming. Blake is an alumnus of Tisch School of the Arts, and the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University.

Monique Gaffney is a teaching artist and award-winning actor and has been a teaching artist for VERBITAS for the past two years as a co-director and choreographer. Recent credits include Red Velvet (Old Globe), The Wind and the Breeze (Cygnet). University of California San Diego (BA), Columbia University (MFA).

McCarty and Gaffney will be working with the students at three schools.
The students at Carlsbad High School have chosen the topic of "Mental Health Awareness and Stigma" (Travis Blumer, drama teacher). Sage Creek High School will explore "Gender Stereotypes and Gender Identity" (Jillian Porter-Eshelman, drama teacher) and Army-Navy Academy cadets will explore "Substance Abuse and Addiction" (Lance Arthur Smith, drama teacher). Scripts and show titles are still in development and will be announced closer to the performance date.

Friday January 18 and Saturday January 19 at 7:00pm, Sage Creek Performing Arts Center, Thursday February 28 at 7:00pm, Schulman Auditorium at Dove Library
Thursday March 7 and Friday March 8 at 7:00pm, Army-Navy Academy Davis Hall Auditorium

https://www.newvillagearts.org/programs-for-schools. Performances are free with a $5 suggested donation

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