Pedestrians in downtown Pittsburgh are accustomed to the occasional pigeon in their path, but imagine encountering 250 of them, all three feet tall with heads bobbing and coo, coo-ing, as they head towards the Byham Theater?

This unlikely scenario will soon become reality as children from downtown child care centers practice their pigeon moves as they make their way to a performance of Pigeon Party!, presented as part of the 2009-2010 Pittsburgh International Children’s Theater season. 

This experience with live theater is the nexus of a series of four artist residency workshops which Gateway to the Arts is providing for the children at nine downtown child care centers.

A collaboration with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and sponsored by PNC’s Grow Up Great initiative, Gateway’s teaching artists engage the preschoolers in active learning experiences inspired by Mo Willem’s series of Pigeon children’s books, the same books that inspired the Big Wooden Horse Theatre Company’s production at the Byham.

The workshops, two before and two after the performance at the Byham, use arts-based activities to engage children in role-play experiences that build skills in literacy, social interaction, motor coordination and self-regulation. Children will learn to put on their ‘audience ears” and try out ‘actor voices’ in preparation for the live theater experience, and will participate in guided reflection after the event, recalling content, emotions and sequencing of events during the performance through role-play, verbal and dance/movement-inspired recollections.

Other activities elaborate on the narrative in the books. Building upon Willem’s book Don’t Let Pigeon Drive the Bus!, the children take an imaginary bus ride, complete with tickets and a Port Authority bus route map, that encourages them to demonstrate reasoning and problem-solving skills, as they explain to a pigeon puppet why he can’t possibly drive a bus.

This is the second time in which Gateway to the Arts has collaborated with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust to bring books to life for children in downtown child care centers. Last fall a similar set of workshops was created, in conjunction with a performance of Harold and the Purple Crayon, adapted from the classic children’s book, which was also part of the 2009-2010 Pittsburgh International Children’s Theater season.