May has been a full month for the Neighborhood Arts Programs. Over 250 youth, 24 teachers, 10 teaching artists, and a dozen community members were busily making Spectacle with Redmoon. Both the Dramagirls and Redmoon School Partnership presented an end of the year Spectacle Event devised, designed, built, and performed by the youth.

Watching the shows reminds me of why we make Spectacle with youth. There is nothing else out there quite like it. The work is beautiful, inquisitive and sometimes silly… it reflects them. It transforms children into powerful and confident artists full of pride and investment in their work. They find this magical and pure form of focus and attention. They discover the power of sharing their stories and ideas through art and performance. It is remarkable.

I want to share a bit of our process with you all. Below you will find a synopsis of the Spectacle Events and inspirations that propelled this year’s work. To learn more about the Neighborhood Arts Program visit www.redmoon.org/naprogram.

Redmoon School Partnership

EARTH ARCADE (without new mountains)

In a yearlong collaboration the students and teachers of Audubon School worked with Redmoon teaching artists to develop, design, compose, build, and rehearse EARTH ARCADE (without new mountains) – a Spectacle Event for students, teachers, and families.

As always, we are guided by the theme of “Nature in the City.” This year we decided to base our performance on the structure of an arcade, which is traditionally an indoor public space for individual entertainment. The Earth Arcade challenges this individual entertainment approach by bringing the arcade outdoors and transforming it into a community experience.

Learn more about our process at the Earth Arcade wiki!

Dramagirls

WE DON’T LIKE BEING SHUSHED! La biblioteca amarilla.

In Dramagirls’ 13^th year, the girls and their mentors created and performed an Event exploring the idea of an interactive library: installations full of sprouting books, insect soundscapes, and bookcases that come to life with poetic pictures.

The girls were inspired by the question, “Why do we save stories? How do we share stories? What will happen to our stories?” We wrote poetry. The girls looked at artists working with paper, pop-up books, shadow puppetry, scrolling picture devices.

In this process, we were most inspired by the art of Su Blackwell.

-Angela Tillges, Neighborhood Arts Programs Director