RCSD Passport Program (ongoing)

Geva provides the Rochester City School District with free tickets to selected performances in every year’s student matinee series, so that classes which might not otherwise visit Geva have the opportunity to experience live theatre, enhanced by the full range of our P.L.A.Y. programming. RCSD teachers who would like to request tickets through the Passport Program should contact Laurie Hidley at (585) 328-0037 ext. 1080.

Geva Jurists: Ambassadors for August Wilson (2008-2011)

Four successive senior English classes from John Marshall High School studied August Wilson’s American Century as it was presented in productions and readings at Geva. These students and their teachers hosted Geva guest artists in their classroom, and crafted special investigations and projects to connect the historic legacy of these plays with the stories of their own personal history in Rochester.

The Stage Door Project: Almost, Maine (2009-10)

With the Mainstage production of Almost, Maine, Geva threw open the stage door and welcomed nine area high schools into every step of our production process. Each of the dedicated teachers on our team was assigned one of the nine scenes in the play, and each assembled a cast of actors, a designer interested in scenery, costumes, lighting or sound, and a marketing team from their own schools. Then the idea sharing began: sharing between Geva and the schools, among the nine different schools themselves, between professionals and students, from city to the suburbs and across the generations. Together we explored the ideas of the play and the rigorous and inspiring process of realizing it on stage. The project culminated for the public with the students from the nine schools performing their own production of Almost, Maine on the Geva Mainstage, with the design and technical elements from the professional production.

Steps in the Stage Door journey were reported by students, teachers and Geva staff on our blog for the project.

Click here to get a glimpse of the Stage Door Project; ALMOST, MAINE

"Our Town" with Brighton High School (2007)

The Brighton High School Shadowing Project gave a cast of high school performers staging Our Town the opportunity to meet with their counterparts in Geva’s professional cast, share their thoughts and creative process, rehearse their own production, and then perform the play with full technical elements on Geva’s Mainstage on the set of Geva’s production of Our Town. We were honored to bring a new community of young artists, families, friends and neighbors into a more intimate experience of our theatre-making, both at Brighton High School and at Geva. By participating in this joint venture we discovered immense value for the participating students and professionals alike, and discussed how to build subsequent opportunities to share this triumph with others in our community, such as the Stage Door Project, above.

Empire State Partnership at RCSD Lincoln Park School No. 44 (2003-2009)

This program connects the elementary students at school No. 44 with performances at Geva through classroom residencies. Artist-educators and classroom teachers work as teams to develop units that integrate themes and content from productions, theatre-making skills modeled by the Geva performance, and classroom curriculum goals. The production is explored school-wide and serves as a springboard for students’ own projects and performances. This partnership is a collaboration with Rochester Wolf Trap, and part of a New York State Council on the Arts state-wide initiative for Arts-in-Education.

Do you envision an opportunity for partnership with our Education department? Contact Director of Education Skip Greer at (585) 232-1366, ext. 3073.

“…Knowledgeable adults working creatively with me on personal expression, knowledge of what it means to be human, and how to have confidence in my own ability, with will and purpose.”