Italian & Theater Classes

Since 2003 KIT is offering Italian&Theatre classes for children. Our method is to involve the children in any aspect of a theatre production, from creating the story, to writing it, to perform it, deciding on the music, choreography, set, costumes. In the meantime, they learn or improve Italian, as the entire final show is totally in Italian.

For the season 2010-2011, KIT is again collaborating with La Collina Italiana, a wonderful Italian school on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, and with Every Little Movement, a multi-discipline school in Hoboken, NJ.

LA COLLINA ITALIANA (135 E 96th street – Tel. 212-427 7770 – www.collinaitaliana.com)

TUESDAYS 3:45-5PM
TEATRO ITALIANO: MAKE AN ITALIAN SHOW!
AGES 5-7
How many stories have you recounted to your children? How many times have you seen your young child enthralled by a story and even perform in their rooms? TEATRO ITALIANO for children transforms those stories by bringing them to the stage for a real audience.

The students, with teacher guidance, create a play, including the costumes and songs. Children also learn pronunciation and Italian vocabulary, idioms, and grammar through performing. At the end of the workshop, the class stages a play entirely in Italiano!

WEDNESDAYS 3:30-4:45PM
TEATRO ITALIANO: GO ON STAGE…IN ITALIAN!
AGES 8-12
How many stories have your teens told you? How many times have you seen your kids improvise stories? TEATRO ITALIANO for teens gives your kids a platform to perform their favorite stories for an audience.

The students, with teacher guidance, create a play, including the costumes and songs. Participants also master pronunciation and learn new Italian vocabulary, idioms, and grammar through performing. At the end of the workshop, the class stages a play entirely in Italiano!

EVERY LITTLE MOVEMENT (Tel. +1-917-945-4064 – www.everylittlemovement.com)
Classes LOCATION: Church of St. John’s (300 Bloomfield Street@ 3rd Street), Hoboken, NJ

THURSDAYS 5:30-6:30PM
Storytelling, Masks and some tricks from the Commedia dell’Arte

This year the theatre course will focus on very first alphabet of theater: story-telling using masks and theater tricks. The exercises and the improvisations will be based on the ancient way to perform on a square and in front of a wide audience.

Starting from given short stories, the students will create their own new stories. Such stories will include movements and sounds, the use and the making of masks and props, and some ‘tricks’ as used in the legendary Commedia Dell’Arte, the Italian form of theater that influenced the modern and contemporary theatre all over the world.

The final show will display the sum of the work done during the classes. The students will learn how to make very simple masks, how to build a show, and most important how to relate, connect and communicate with people (the other actors, the audience), and use any given space, outdoor or indoor, big or small, triangular or circular.