Lansing 5th- and 6th-Graders to Learn Storytelling Through MATILDA THE MUSICAL

The Broadway League (national theatre trade association) has awarded Wharton Center for Performing Arts a $5000 National Education and Engagement grant to support a program that will allow students to experience and understand Broadway performances as a form of artistic expression and a powerful education tool.

Wharton Center is partnering with fifth- and six-grade students from Pattengill Middle School and Pleasant View Performing Arts Magnet School, storyteller Luann Adams, local teaching artist Janet Colson, WKAR, and screenwriter Lucy Dahl. This collaboration will help build literacy and language arts skills through the art of storytelling and reader's theatre:

- Students are reading Roald Dahl's novel MATILDA and discussing the novel's themes of bravery and imagination.

- They will learn the art of storytelling from renowned storyteller, Luann Adams.

- Through classroom interaction with Janet Colson, they will apply what they learn and create a distilled Readers Theatre version of the story of MATILDA.

- Ultimately, the students will tell the story to local kindergartners.

- At the end of the project, the 5th- and 6th-graders will see the MATILDA THE MUSICAL at Wharton Center.

- After seeing the show, they will have a special interview with screenwriter Lucy Dahl (who is also the daughter of Roald Dahhl) at WKAR.

Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Dodgers, the first national tour of MATILDA THE MUSICAL will be featured at Wharton Center on Tuesday, April 19 - Sunday, April 24, 2016, in the Cobb Great Hall. Tickets to see MATILDA THE MUSICAL are available at the official source to purchase Wharton Center tickets online, whartoncenter.com; at the Auto-Owners Insurance Ticket Office; or by calling 1-800- WHARTON.