The Programs

Our programs are voluntary after-school programs that meet weekly. Each program spans a semester to a year, and is based on curricula that use improvisation, acting games and exercises to unleash students' creativity, foster ensemble work, and develop professional acting techniques. Courses work toward creating an original production, written and performed by the students. Past performances have been produced at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Chashama, and the Gene Frankel Theatre. The schools we work with are selected based on need: we reach out to schools with a combination of low reading scores, low graduation rates and evident lack of theater programming. All of our programs are offered at no cost to our schools. Opening Act currently runs programs in four New York City public high schools: Automotive, Clara Barton, and Lafayette High Schools in Brooklyn and Walton High School in the Bronx .

Impact and Achievements

In four years Opening Act has completed 24 semester long programs at seven NYC high schools , serving over 250 students , who created and performed in twelve afternoon showcases and seven full scale productions .