In-School Programs
Theatre unlocks learning potential. Enrich the lives of students and community members by bringing Gulfshore Playhouse directly to you.
ThinkTheatre is a meticulously crafted program that integrates theatre arts pedagogy with state education standards. With week-long residencies designed to empower students to master essential skills aligned with their grade levels, our programming is in full compliance with Florida State Standards and CPalms. This academic enhancement is accomplished through team-building and self-expression, leaving a lasting impact on students.
Our professional teaching artists build engaging curriculum in ELA, Match, Science, Social Studies/Geography, US/Ancient World History, & Civics that enriches students’ comprehension and skill. Our team is continuing to build new residencies for all grade levels and all subject areas, and can be modified to fit the needs of each classroom teacher.
If you are seeing ways to energize your classroom through fun, creative, and learning-focussed residencies, be sure to check out our offerings.
Read the ThinkTheatre Brochure
You might also be interested in Playground: The Gulfshore Playhouse Theatre for Youth Tour.
Click here to learn more.
ThinkTheatre Programs Offered
Kindergarten: The Very Hungry Caterpillar (ELA/Science)
- Overview: By examining The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, students will learn new words through activities presented in the read aloud and apply them through song, movement, and mind.
- Objective: The students will demonstrate understanding of newly acquired vocabulary words by performing a staged version of the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
First Grade: Weather Pattern Roadtrip (Geography/Science)
- Overview: This workshop will focus on weather patterns, specifically the geographic relevance of weather patterns, as inspired by “I Am The Storm” by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple which aims to alleviate young people’s anxieties surrounding severe weather.
- Objective: Students will utilize the actors’ toolbox of Body, Voice and Imagination to engage in drama to develop and apply real-world understanding of acquired vocabulary by creating maps of the United States that illustrate regional weather patterns.
First Grade: Money Jump (Math)
- Overview: This educational theatre workshop focuses directly on money while practicing storytelling and performing skills. Students will identify the values of coins and prices, while being able to speak clearly, connect physically, and experiment with fundamental theatre skills.
- Objective: The students will be able to count and recognize different values of money by working together to estimate different prices for various objects while also being the money values.
Second Grade: Weathering the Storms (Science)
- Overview: This workshop focuses on natural science and the weather. Second grade students will identify the different types of weather alerts and prepare for major storms, while being able to speak clearly, connect physically, and experiment with fundamental theatre skills.
- Objective: The students will be able to recognize the different hazards of each Florida storm by acting out different ways to take safety precautions and prepare for Florida’s natural disasters.
Third Grade: Picture This (ELA)
- Overview: This workshop focuses on language arts and storytelling. Students will gain storytelling techniques by acting out a story using detailed physicality, body language, and gestures. Students will identify impactful methods of storytelling by physically embodying well-known fairytales through stage pictures and tableaux.
- Objective: The students will be able to convey important story plot points through staging tableaus and stage pictures of various well-known fairy tales.
Fourth Grade: Uncovering History (Social Studies)
- Overview: The students will use their Actor’s Toolbox of Body, Voice, and Imagination, to explore the landscape of Florida over 1000 years ago, learning about the land and the people who lived there.
- Objective: Students will be able to explain the history and significance of the Calusa people of Southwest Florida including their lifestyle and culture through the use of dramatic exercises and art activities.
Fifth Grade: Math Detectives (Math)
- Overview: Employing students as detectives to solve the case of the missing math notebooks, this residency challenges students to implement their understanding of data analysis (mean, median, mode, range) in order to solve fractions-based word problems.
- Objective: The students will implement their developing vocabulary regarding fractions, coordinate planes, and data collection to solve word problems related to a process drama.
Fifth Grade: Animal City Elections (Civics)
- Overview: This educational theatre workshop focuses on improving students’ nonfiction writing while understanding the election process through process drama.
- Objective: The students will implement their developing vocabulary regarding informational texts structures and features to read and write nonfiction texts related to a process drama.
Middle School: Greek Theatre (Ancient World History/ELA)
- Overview: This workshop focuses on life in ancient Greece, specifically focusing on Greek theatre and storytelling. By the end of the workshop, students will have a better understanding of the rules and practices used in Greek theatre and how it impacted the larger culture of ancient Greece. They will also be able to adapt, write, and perform a brief theatre piece based on an existing Greek story.
- Objective: Students will be able to analyze an existing Greek myth and adapt it into an original theatre piece after being introduced to the culture of ancient Greece and the art of Greek theatre.
Middle School: Battle of the Bard (ELA)
- Overview: This workshop focuses on language arts and Shakespearean performance. Students will be introduced to the history and works of William Shakespeare, while being able to identify various analytical strategies for examining a body of text. By the end of the workshop, students will have a better understanding of the works, meanings, and adaptations of Shakespeare, as exhibited by performances of short scenes from Shakespeare’s most famous plays.
- Objective: Students will be able to understand, interpret, and perform the works of William Shakespeare through textual analysis and performance opportunities.
Middle School: Trip Through the Solar System (Science)
- Overview: This educational workshop focuses on the different objects in space and their properties through the lens of theatre arts.
- Objective: The students will be able to identify different objects in space and explain their significance to scientific research as a whole through relevant discussion and meaningful participation in content-specific theatre and storytelling activities.
Middle School: The Trial of Mary Suratt (US History)
- Overview: Students will participate in a mock trial of Mary Surratt, a suspected conspirator to the Abraham Lincoln assassination of 1865. This educational theatre residency focuses on collaboration, character development, and critical thinking, while incorporating performance and improvisational skills.
- Objective: Students will construct logical arguments, create characters, work as an ensemble, and deliver persuasive arguments by examining historical testimonies, art, and events during the Civil War in order to participate in a performative mock trial.
High School: Production Design as Literacy (ELA)
- Overview: The students will participate in a design interpretation of their own. This educational theatre residency focuses on design, character analysis, and critical thinking, while incorporating presentation skills.
- Objective: Students will be able to evaluate a Shakespeare play through script analysis, collecting research imagery, and constructing a design concept.
High School: Rhetoric and Performance: Verbatim Theatre (ELA, AP Extension)
- Overview: Students will construct Verbatim Theatre from short pieces of nonfiction (interviews, opinion pieces, speeches, etc.), either provided or approved by the classroom teacher in order to develop a greater understanding of the rhetorical devices and situation employed and responded to by the authors. Students will culminate this process by crafting a concept statement for the play, addressing their deeper understanding of the arguments
- Objective: Students will examine the use of rhetorical devices in a course-appropriate short piece of nonfiction through experimentation with performance activities to argue their unique interpretation of the piece with textual evidence.
High School: Poetry and Performance (ELA, AP Extension)
- Overview: This educational theatre workshop focuses on poetry and the creative writing process, while incorporating performance and improvisational skills.
- Objective: The students will be able to draft, write, revise, and perform original poems when given a prompt.
Complete the ThinkTheatre Interest Form
Complete the ThinkTheatre Interest Form 
