American Alliance of Theatre and Education and The New Victory Theater Host Play in Progress, a TYA Symposium January 9-11, 2015

    BETHESDA, MD, November 11, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The American Alliance of Theatre and Education (AATE) and The New Victory Theater team up to present a three-day symposium entitled Play in Progress: "Creating New Theater for Kids and Families" from Friday, January 9, through Sunday, January 11, 2015 at The Duke on 42nd Street in Times Square.

The intention of the symposium is to provide participants with the knowledge, skills and ideas for fostering and supporting new work in their own community. Through performances, hands-on workshops, panel discussions and breakout dialogues, participants will investigate new work development in Theater for Young Audiences (TYA) from the perspectives of the artist, the educator and the presenter. Working with artists from the NEW VICTORY LabWorks program, The New Victory Theater's artist residency initiative for the development of innovative work for families, participants will gain insight into the current state of new work creation and play a role in imagining the future of the field.

The event will feature a keynote performance of Birdheart, a 30-minute tabletop puppetry piece created by Tony-nominated theater designer, director and puppet maker Julian Crouch (Broadway's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Metropolitan Opera and English National Opera's Satyagraha and New Victory presentations Shockheaded Peter, Wolves in the Walls) and the multi-talented musician, puppeteer and performer Saskia Lane (Dan Zanes & Friends, The Lascivious Biddies). Using ordinary objects including crumpled brown paper and a mound of sand, Crouch and Lane evoke an eerily extraordinary beauty as they tell the story of what happens when an egg cracks open and a restless paper spirit emerges. Birdheart, a work in progress is Crouch's and Lane's first project together as duo puppeteers and performers. Developed as part of the 2013-14 New Victory Labworks Artist Residency, with additional support from the St Anne's Warehouse Puppet Lab and the Henson Foundation, the fully realized production will be commissioned and produced by VisionIntoArt (VIA) for Original Music Workshop (OMW)'s opening season, Fall 2015.

To register for the theater for young audiences symposium, go to www.aate.com/tyas. The early bird cost is $85 for Student/Retired Members, $125 for AATE Members, and $205 for Non-Members. Early bird rates end on Friday, November 21st. Regular rates are $95 for Student/Retired Members, $135 for AATE Members, and $215 for Non-Members. For more information call (301) 200-1944.

About American Alliance for Theatre and Education
The American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE), among the most recognized arts education organizations, works to ensure that every young person experiences quality theatre arts in their lives provided by proficient, talented artists and educators. Based in Bethesda, MD, AATE continues to advocate for arts education, serving as a national co-sponsor of Arts Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill and on the leadership team of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS). AATE co-authored the National Standards for Theatre Education K-12, sits on the Arts Education Partnership steering committee, the Arts Education National Advisory Council and serves on the editorial board of the Arts Education Policy Review.

About NEW VICTORY LabWorks
Established to foster the development of innovative work for family audiences and to advocate for the importance of quality performing arts for young people, NEW VICTORY LabWorks is designed to embrace artists, educators, producers, presenters and others in the field through the development of new work, professional development and advocacy. Led by NEW VICTORY Director of Artistic Programming Mary Rose Lloyd and her team, LabWorks offers opportunities for exchange with national and international artists and promotes the importance of quality performing arts and arts engagement for young audiences. NEW VICTORY LabWorks is supported, in part, by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

About The New Victory Theater
The New Victory Theater introduces extraordinary performing artists from around the world to extraordinary audiences in New York City, bringing kids to the arts and arts to kids. Created in 1995 for young New Yorkers, their families and schoolmates, The New Victory Theater presents a diverse season of international companies at low ticket prices year after year. Through the theater's award-winning education programs, The New Victory continues to provide access to schools and communities of New York City who seek to experience and engage with the work on our stages, often for the very first time. The Off-Broadway theater's contributions to the cultural landscape of the city were celebrated by the prestigious New York critics' organization, The Drama Desk, which presented The New Victory Theater with a 2012 Special Award for "providing enchanting, sophisticated children's theater that appeals to the child in all of us, and for nurturing a love of theater in young people."

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