For Educators
Free School Shows
The Arts at Millersville offers FREE school shows for students in the area. Contact Barry Kornhauser, Assistant Director of Campus and Community Engagement, for more information or to book your student group.
Here is the 2024-2025 season lineup of free school shows:
CIRQUE KALABANTE: AFRIQUE EN CIRQUE
Monday, September 23 | 10:30 a.m
Clair Hall – Winter Center
Experience the beauty and artistry of African culture – en cirque! Inspired by daily life in Guinea, Cirque Kalabante’s Afrique en Cirque showcases the strength, agility, and joy of the country’s young acrobats with gravity-defying moves, human pyramids, and the sounds of live Afro-jazz. An unforgettable journey! Best enjoyed by ALL grades.
THE PACK DRUMLINE
Monday, November 18 | 10:30 a.m.
Clair Hall – Winter Center
Blending Southern show-style drumming with intense upbeat choreography, The Pack Drumline creates an electrifying performance with dynamic rhythms and high-energy beats. From the opening notes to the final crescendo, these America’s Got Talent winners captivate audiences and will have you dancing in the aisles! Best enjoyed by grades 3 & up.
LAYER THE WALLS: MIDCENTURY
Friday, January 24 | 10:30 a.m.
Clair Hall – Winter Center
What if you discovered an old apartment covered with 40 layers of wallpaper? What if each layer revealed the stories of past tenants? Explore the living history of a tenement apartment in New York that was once the home to hundreds of new immigrants. Puppetry and masks bring to life the stories of Chinese, Jewish, and Puerto Rican families between the years of 1930 and 1970 – stories that have shaped the America we know today. Best enjoyed by grades 3 – 8.
MAROONED! A SPACE COMEDY
Friday, February 28 | 10:30 a.m.
Steinman Hall – Ware Center
An astronaut traveling 87,000 light years into space crash-lands on an uncharted planet, where she must resort to emergency measures to seek rescue. From the award-winning team Alex & Olmsted, elegant puppetry design meets joyful, meaningful storytelling to delightful effect in a production that has been called “achingly beautiful.” This Jim Henson Foundation grant-awarded show is puppetry life support of the best kind. Best enjoyed by grades K – 8.
THE VANISHING ELEPHANT
Friday, March 28 | 10:30 a.m.
Clair Hall – Winter Center
Opu, a young boy in Bengal, dreams of one day becoming an elephant trainer. When he befriends Janu, an Asian elephant, their friendship is the first step on an adventure so huge, it spans decades and continents. Years in the future, Opu, now an old man, hears that the world-famous magician Harry Houdini will vanish an elephant on stage in New York City. Could it possibly be his old friend Janu so far from home? He must bravely make the long journey into the unknown to find out. A moving story of friendship, belonging, and one incredible journey from Bengal to the bright lights of Broadway, presented by the beloved Cahoots Theatre Company of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Best enjoyed by grades 3 and up.
Other Opportunities
BECOMING OTHELLO: A BLACK GIRL’S JOURNEY
Friday, February 7 | 7:30 p.m.
Steinman Hall – Ware Center | 7:30 p.m.
A tour-de-force living memoir and solo show. Chronicling the trials and triumphs of her life – her joy-filled tumultuous youth in Harlem, her fateful encounter with a Shakespeare troupe, and her gender-flipped journey playing Othello – Debra Ann Byrd bares her soul in this vulnerable, personal, and resonant story of perseverance, discovery, and unconditional love. Best enjoyed by grades 8 and up. School workshops TBA.
iLUMINATE
Friday, April 25 | 7:30 p.m.
Steinman Hall – Ware Center
Hailed as the “Best New Act In America” on America’s Got Talent, iLuminate has toured the world, awakening the imagination with its electrifying fusion of technology and dance. Watch in awe as dancers in electrified glow-in-the-dark suits perform dynamic routines to the music of Lizzo, Billy Eilish, Michael Jackson, and others, creating thrilling illusions on a darkened stage – a dance show unlike any you have ever seen! Best enjoyed by ALL grades. Financial support to Title 1 School students to attend performance.