Broadway Grand Rapids Joins Wharton Center For HEIGHTS Immersion Project

Broadway Grand Rapids & Wharton Center for Performing Arts have partnered to conduct an arts education residency at Central High School October 18- October 20, 2010 designed around the Broadway tour of IN THE HEIGHTS.

This is a newly developed program that will give students a chance to express themselves through poetry, learn a historical perspective regarding the Hispanic population, create a meaningful performance piece, and give back to their school community through a fundraising performance.

During the three-day residency scheduled, members of Freestyle Love Supreme (Anthony Veneziale aka. Two-Touch and Daveed Diggs) will introduce the art form of urban poetry and spoken word to CHS students. Activities will include lessons on composing lyrics, practicing freestyle rap in small groups, and self expression through word play, among others. Artists would also discuss how urban poetry was utilized in the creation of the Broadway production of IN THE HEIGHTS and how it relates to Hispanic culture.
Following the conclusion of the residency, teachers will continue the project by working with students to develop their ideas into a performance. The students and teachers will organize a performance to take place in mid-December 2010, prior to winter break, at the Grand Rapids Central High School auditorium. This presentation of urban poetry is a fundraising effort with a small entrance fee. While all students participating in the residency will have the opportunity to attend IN THE HEIGHTS presented by Broadway Grand Rapids at DeVos Performance Hall, followed by a post-performance talk back with the actors, the proceeds from the fundraiser will be used to purchase additional tickets for other Grand Rapids Central High School students to attend as well.

IN THE HEIGHTS, running January 4-9, 2011 at DeVos Performance Hall, tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York's Washington Heights neighborhood - a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It's a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind.

Broadway Grand Rapids tickets are available at the DeVos Performance Hall box office, all Ticketmaster locations, www.ticketmaster.com or via phone at 1-800-745-3000. Group discounts for 10 or more are available by calling 616-742-6185.
Anthony Veneziale (aka Two-Touch) has been performing improv for over ten years starting at Wesleyan University with Gag Relfex. He has toured the United States and Canada twice with improv troupes and has been in the NYC groups Organatron, The Pedestrians and currently with Freestyle Love Supreme. FLS has recently performed to sold-out houses in Edinburgh at the International Fringe Festival (Assembly Rooms), Melbourne at the International Comedy Festival (Victoria Stage), Aspen for the US Comedy Arts Festival (The Tent, Late Night with Catherine O'Hara, Very Funny Live with Jeff Garland) and Ars Nova in NYC. Veneziale has appeared on Sex and the City, All My Children, numerous commercials and is currently working on a TV version of The New Electric Company with Sesame Workshop.

Daveed Diggs is an actor, educator, composer, rap and spoken word artist who graduated with a degree in Theater Arts from Brown University in 2004. Daveed Diggs is currently producing work with National Hip Hop Collective The Getback. He's featured on their first release Rafael A.D. Casals As Good As Your Word and has a solo album set for release later this year. Diggs also teaches Rap and Spoken word classes at James Lick Middle School and at the Marsh Youth Theater and gives workshops throughout the Bay Area, New York City, and New Jersey. He has been a teacher in residence with the Arts Literacy Program in Providence, Rhode Island and a teaching artist for the national youth spoken word organization Youth Speaks. In the New York Area you can see Diggs perform as a new member of the improvisational theater/rap event Freestyle Love Supreme. Catch him in San Francisco with the similarly designed Improvisational music/super-hero squadron The Freeze.

www.intheheightsthemusical.com

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