The Barnes Group Foundation is dedicated to strengthening education in its communities. Hartford Stage was pleased to receive the Bristol-based organization’s support last year, which enabled Education @ Hartford Stage to offer its popular in-school reading program, Connections, in Bristol Public Schools for the first time. This year, the Barnes Group Foundation increased its support of this important program by 50%, making it possible for our Education team to serve students in 18 classes across four Bristol schools.

Connections is a five-day pre-reading residency that uses theatre techniques to strengthen comprehension skills and build excitement about a piece of literature. Last year, middle school students at Bristol Public Schools were introduced to two books: Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Esperanza Rising and Sy Montgomery’s The Man-Eating Tigers of the Sundarbans. Nina Pinchin, Associate Director of Education @ Hartford Stage, explained that “both are terrific texts with a lot for sixth grade students to sink their teeth into. I love Esperanza Rising, as it truly tells a story of immigration that lives up to its hopeful name.”

Esperanza Rising and Pike St. share a thematic bond of family and the struggles to support and hold a family together through trying circumstances. Both stories also touch upon the immigrant experience in America. Esperanza Rising is the story of a young girl who comes to California from Mexico during the Great Depression, looking for work and a new start after her family loses everything in their native land, while Pike St. follows three generations of a Puerto Rican family living on New York’s Lower East Side, who are similarly struggling to survive in the face of both literal and metaphoric storms.

Hartford Stage Resident Teaching Artist Carly Oliver explained that a typical teaching day for Connections “involves showing up at a school in the morning with a box full of props, costumes, and other teaching supplies and going into a classroom (or several) to take students on a theatrical journey around a piece of literature.” On any given day, Oliver’s responsibilities may include playing a character from the story and letting students interview her to discover new information; leading students on a pantomime adventure; coaching students as they prepare tableaux about a character’s life; or sitting with students in a circle and engaging in deep conversations about crucial moments in history – everything from segregation to the Holocaust to (in the case of Esperanza Rising) the repatriation of immigrants and struggles for workers’ rights during the Great Depression.

Theatrical devices taught in Connections include tableau, pantomime, monologue, and dialogue. Connections teaching artists encourage students to connect with the characters on a personal and emotional level and to use body language, facial expressions, and vocal expression to create short performances furthering exploring the characters’ lives or parallel moments in students’ own lives.

Oliver noted that one of the most exciting moments in teaching Connections is “getting to the end of the week and seeing the looks on students’ faces when we hand them their books.” By this point, the teaching artists have built so much suspense and empathy around the characters and the story that the students are excited to receive their books and begin reading them.

It is important to fund education programs that support the arts for so many reasons. Oliver said that “besides the intrinsic value of teaching art for the sake of art, the arts have the power to enhance student growth in a variety of other areas: empathy, teamwork, self-confidence, creativity and self-expression. The arts are deeply human, and anything that allows us to connect with ourselves and each other on a human level is not only valuable – it’s crucial.”

Hartford Stage is grateful to the Barnes Group Foundation for its commitment to supporting education and the arts for students in the community.