ArtCity Austin Recyles!

This past weekend, April 25th and 26th, Theatre Action Project participated in the ArtCity Austin Festival! Volunteers encouraged festival patrons to recycle at the event, and the enitre festival generated the least amount of trash an Austin festival has ever seen. Theatre Action Project was excited to be a part of such a green initiative!

Volunteers also helped draw chalk mandalas on Saturday and to organize a Kid’s Parade on Sunday–making the entire parade out of recycled or recyclable objects. Kids and their families then marched down Cesar Chavez to Austin’s City Hall showing off their creations.

Theatre Action Project extends a huge thank you to all our volunteers who made this weekend such a fun event!

Also, click to see a short video of ArtCity Austin on Austin360′s website, with footage of our recycling parade near the end! VIDEO

April Volunteer of the Month

Avery Ashwill began volunteering with TAP back in November as a Special Events volunteer. If you’ve had the chance to volunteer side-by-side with Avery, you know that she is a really fun person and great with kids. She has contributed to TAP’s First Night project, “Keep the Night Alive,” has helped out at multiple Paramount Lobby Days, as well as the recent Zilker Kite Festival. Avery is a freshman at Austin High School and an avid rower with the Austin Rowing Club junior team. We are really glad to have Avery as part of our volunteer team!

National Volunteer Week 2009

Volunteers at the 2009 Kite Festival,helping TAP put on The Red Balloon puppet show.

April 19-25th is National Volunteer Week. The 2009 National Volunteer Week theme, Celebrating People in Action, captures the meaning behind this signature week: honoring the individuals who take action and solve problems in their communities. This celebratory week will also focus national attention on the impact and power of volunteerism and service as an integral aspect of our civic leadership. Established in 1974 by former President Richard Nixon, National Volunteer Week has grown exponentially in scope each year, drawing the support and endorsement of all subsequent U.S. presidents, governors, mayors and other respected elected officials, as well as corporate and community groups across the country.

Theatre Action Project wants to thank all of its wonderful volunteers who help make our programming possible! Thanks!

High school volunteer, Grace Uhm, helping out at TAP’s art project before the Junie B. Jones Paramount Theatre show this winter.

Earth Day Art Activity

April 22nd is Earth Day! You can show how much you love our great planet on April 22nd and every day. Here are some ideas and tips for you and your family. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to talk with your family about the importance of taking care of the environment – It’s Spring, turn your family GREEN.

Why not make this simple Earth picture craft? An easy painting project all ages can enjoy. You can also use the same techniques to create your own planets!

•Age Guideline: 3 Years and Up
•Time Required: 15 minutes (Does not include drying time)

Instructions:
Lay a piece of wax paper down on your work surface. If you like, find a picture of the Earth for reference. Lay the coffee filter onto the wax paper.

Now you can ‘draw’ a picture of the earth on the coffee filter by using drops of blue and green food coloring. Add one drop at a time and watch how the colors spread. Once the entire coffee filter is colored, set it aside and let it dry.

The dried earth picture can be hung up in a window or attached to the front of a Happy Earth Day card!

(art project couresy of Sherri Osborn)

Other Ways to Celebrate Earth Day:
• Find out more about what Earth Day is about.
• Go for a walk and pick up garbage in the neighborhood.
• Go for a walk and pay attention to how many different kinds of plants, animals, and insects you see.
• Organize or take part in a park clean-up project.
• Visit a landfill and/or recycling center.
• Plant a garden or tree.
• Visit a nature center or wilderness area.
• Find out about different ways to save energy.
• Find out more about recycling.
• Celebrate Earth Day by reading Dr.Seuss’s The Lorax

Happy Earth Day, from Theatre Action Project!

Shake it Up, Shakespeare

On April 3, 2009 students from Copperfield Elementary went with Mr. Dustin and Ms. Sarah on an after school field trip to Richard Garriot’s Curtain Theatre. Ann Ciccolella of Austin Shakespeare was kind enough to open the doors of this Elizabethan theatre replica nestled deep in the West Austin hills. The Copperfield 4th graders are working with Mr. Dustin to learn all they can about William Shakespeare and life in Elizabethan England using a newly developed TAP curriculum, “Shake it up, Shakespeare”.

At the Curtain students toured the theatre and saw with their very eyes that which they had only been seeing in books. The groundskeeper, Dale, took the kids on an exciting tour through the magical Elizabethan village near the site. The students also rehearsed and performed the opening scene of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on that very stage. It was a brief spectacle depicting two twins getting lost at sea when their ship is thrown about the waves and pulled apart – a lot of imagination went into the recreation of this maritime disaster – and all on a stage fit for the actors of Lord Chamberlain’s Men themselves.

The students at Copperfield will perform a very, very condensed version of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at a special family night presentation at the end of May. Surely now, what with all this hands-on experience, we will be garnering a Tony (or an Olivier Award) in no time.