ArtsBridge

ArtsBridge is a University of California system-wide program aimed at bringing the arts into Los Angeles public schools. With the generous support of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and Sony Pictures Entertainment, the School of Theater, Film and Television trains a group of theater students to put their hard-earned skills to use in K-12 classrooms. Each student is assigned to work for 20 weeks with a teacher in an underserved community. The theater students apply their special skills to the teaching of subjects as diverse as environmental science, history and math.

"We are there to use theater as a tool to teach their curriculum," says Faculty Director Pat Harter. "Students learn in different ways.We might have them transform the rituals of an average day into a musical performance piece. Or they will be encouraged to act out things that have negative effects on their communities, and in the process become aware of feelings they might not have been able to put into words. The subject comes alive for some of them for the first time when we involve them physically."

At schools all around the city – among them Selma Avenue Elementary in Hollywood, Manual Arts High School near downtown, David Starr Jordon High School in South Central and Toluca Lake High School in North Hollywood– students who may not have been reached by conventional methods are awakening to the excitement of learning.

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