Updated Rehearsal Schedule with Locations!

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Saturday, November 10th, 10:30am-12:30pm
Lussier Center, 55 South Gammon Road
Please bring canned goods/toiletries to donate!*

Saturday, November 17th, 1pm-3pm
Lussier Center, 55 South Gammon Road
Please bring canned goods/toiletries to donate!*

Saturday, December 1st, 10:30am-12:30pm
Goodman South Library, 2222 S. Park St.

Saturday, December 8th, 1pm-3pm
Goodman South Library, 2222 S. Park St.

Saturday, December 15, 10:30am-12:30pm
Alicia Ashman Library, 733 North High Point Road

Thursday, December 20th, 5pm-8pm
Final Dress Rehearsal at Overture
Dinner will be provided (donations welcome)

Friday, December 21st, call at 5pm
Performance at the Overture at 7pm
Dinner will be provided (donations welcome)

Saturday, December 22nd, call at 12:30pm
Performance at the Overture Center at 2pm

* The Lussier Center is being kind enough to allow us use of the space without any charge! In exchange, they are asking participants to donate canned goods and toiletries (anything that you might usually donate to a food bank). Hooray for community collaboration!

Update on Upcoming Workshops!

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First off, our first round of informative workshops went extremely well and Emily and I are so excited with the group of girls that we have and the ideas that have come up for the performance! There is so much creativity in this group and we can’t wait till December to share it with everyone!

Here is the new list of upcoming workshops with locations and set times:

Sat., Sept 29th, 11am-1pm, The Neighborhood House (29 South Mills Street). There is parking behind the center which you are welcome to use.

Sat. Oct. 13th, 1pm-3pm at the Sequoya Library Branch (4340 Tokay Blvd.)

Sat. Oct. 27th, 1pm-3pm, Goodman South Library Branch (2222 S Park St)

Beginning Sept. 29th, we will really start crafting and rehearsing scenes based on the stories that are shared in the workshops. In November, we will bring together all of the different scenes, with the girls from Jefferson and Spring Harbor middle schools who have been meeting separately, in order to put together our show. It’s all building to those final performances on December 21st and 22nd at the Overture Center!

I look forward to seeing everyone again soon – please let me know if you have any questions!

Liz (fostershaner@wisc.edu)

Upcoming Events

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GIRLS ACT!

Beginning in September, we will be holding workshops for a community performance project that will take place at the Overture Center for the Arts on Dec. 21 and 22.

The performance will be written by, for and about girls aged 9 through 14 who live in the Madison area. This is a great opportunity for girls to share their stories with each other and take ownership over their own representations. During the next few months, participants will learn basic theatrical skills, as well as the fundamentals of playwriting and story gathering.

Do you know girls or are you a girl who is interested? We believe that this project is a fantastic opportunity for girls to work together and express themselves creatively.

Dates and locations for first meetings, you can attend any of these groups for free to learn how to become more involved and find out when our next meetings will be:

Saturday September 8th, 1pm-3pm at Sequoya Branch, Madison Public Library 4340 Tokay Blvd.

Saturday September 22nd, 1pm-3pm at Goodman South Branch, Madison Public Library 2222 South Park St.

Thursday September 27th, 2:45pm-4:45pm Jefferson Middle School- this is a date change!

Thursday September 20th, 2:45pm-4:45pm Spring Harbor Middle School

The project is made possible through a grant from the UW Madison Center for Humanities and is facilitated by PhD candidates Liz Foster-Shaner and Emily Keown.

For more information, please contact Liz Foster-Shaner at fostershaner@wisc.edu and Emily Keown at elkeown@hotmail.com

You can view our blog for more information https://girlsactmadison.wordpress.com/

Thank you so much for your help and support!

Meet the women behind Girls Act Madison!

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Liz Foster-Shaner is a PhD candidate in Theater at UW Madison. She loves theater, especially the kind of theater that sets out to make a difference. Liz’s dissertation is on community-based performance, a kind of theater that creates original plays from interviews and interactions with communities. Liz likes this kind of theater because it involves everyone and provides a space for people to do theater who might not ever get the chance to perform onstage! At UW Madison, Liz has taught a variety of classes including, Introduction to Theater, Drama and Education, Theater for Cultural and Social Awareness and Public Speaking. Liz loves teaching and learns as much from her students as they hopefully learn from her. In her free time, she loves to read, ride her bike, go for long walks, and watch silly TV (I won’t tell you what shows, but they’re pretty silly). Liz is so excited to be working with Girls Act Madison and can’t wait to see how the performance develops over the coming months!

Emily Keown is an EdD candidate at Edgewood College. She has worked with middle school girls around Madison for the past 4 years in after school programs such as Project Girl and MSCR classes. She loves art and teaching. Emily is also new mom of 4 month old identical girls, so her life is all about helping girls build strong & confident identities for themselves. Emily can’t wait to start working on this new project where she can be a support for girls as they write, direct, and star in their own piece of theater!

 

Welcome to Girls Act Madison!

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Over the coming months, we will use this blog to update participants and their families on what’s going on during the workshops and how the performance is progressing. You can also visit this blog to get more information on Girls Act and Liz Foster-Shaner and Emily Keown, who started the project.

Girls Act Madison is made possible with a grant from the UW Madison Center for Humanities, Public Humanities Exchange.