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Artist: Liz Berlin

Join Liz Berlin- performer, recording artist, entrepreneur, educator- as she guides students through a study of songwriting, recording, performance and the music industry from the inside out. After years honing her skills in the music business, Liz shares her unique insights with aspiring musicians. The workshop culminates with a CD of a collaborative song and a student performance. Residency offerings include: Elementary Songwriting (2-5), Middle School Songwriting & Recording (6-8), High School Songwriting & Recording (9-12). After many years with her band, Rusted Root, Liz Berlin has put her experience and success to good use in her other ventures—Mr. Smalls Theatre, Recording Studios, Skateparks and Creative.Life.Support where she’s been teaching and mentoring young musicians and students through the development of Community Songwriting & Recording Classes, Real.Life.Music & Skate Camp and the Mr. Smalls College Internship Program.

Artist: Attack Theater

Attack Theatre's workshops use a unique approach to integrating kinesthetic learning into the curriculum to stimulate students' creativity. Movement activities are carefully crafted to help students understand specific curriculum concepts, such as structure, sequencing, transitioning, literal vs. abstract, adding details and setting the tone or mood. Workshops may kick off with a performance program that provides an exciting glimpse into the world of dance and movement. Co-founders and Artistic Directors of Attack Theatre, Michele de la Reza and Peter Kope, choreograph and perform in Pittsburgh as well as in major cities around the world.

Artist: Billy Jackson

The creative processes involved in filmmaking engage students in visualization and storytelling while honing skills of problem-solving, troubleshooting , meeting deadlines and consensus-building. The end result is a preserved point of view, once-only event or collectively created program that can be a priceless resource for many years to come. The experience that Billy brings to media arts projects is drawn from more than thirty years as an independent filmmaker, five years as an associate professor and over fifteen years as an educator in community, educational and cultural settings.

Artist: Dan Kamin

Dan Kamin created the physical comedy scenes for the films Benny and Joon and Chaplin, and trained Johnny Depp and Robert Downey, Jr. for their acclaimed performance. He also played the vengeful wooden Indian in the cult classic Creepshow 2, consulted on My Best Friend’s Wedding, and created the weird Martian movement for Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks!

Students love meeting someone involved with movies, and Dan Kamin uses the opportunity to draw them into the art of movement.  A gifted teacher and the author of two acclaimed books on Charlie Chaplin, he reveals the secrets behind his movement illusions in this entertaining, hands-on workshop.  Aside from being fun, the workshop teaches basic principles of expressive communication and offers participants ways to be more comfortable physically.  This workshop is most effective in conjunction with one of Dan’s assembly programs, The Pantomime Man (K-5) and The Illusionist (6-12).

A second option for elementary schools is Dan’s “classroom blitz”—ten minute post-show visits to every class in the school, in which the students learn some additional movement skills during their one-on-one visit with The Pantomime Man.

Artist: Christina Farrell

Opera is rich with opportunities to explore history, literature, diverse cultures, music, drama, and performing techniques. This program offers custom-fit, curriculum-based residencies for classrooms which allow students to discover how music can illustrate setting, mood and character in a story and perhaps create an original opera themselves. Coaching on healthy vocal technique is available for musical ensembles as well. Opera Ignite Founding Director Christina Farrell received a BFA in vocal performance from Carnegie Mellon University. She has performed with Washington National Opera and Baltimore’s Opera Vivente, and has served on the voice faculties of Peabody Preparatory and Washington D.C.’s Levine School of Music.