Education - The Heart of ILLUSION’s Mission
ILLUSION, one of the oldest artist-founded theaters in the Twin Cities, is committed to providing high quality arts education experiences for youth. Illusion’s arts education programming reaches a large local and national audience with an innovative mix of performances, workshops, tours, peer education sites, broadcasts and educational materials. It is renowned throughout the state and country for its effective combination of art and education in addressing issues of vital importance to communities.
ILLUSION’s KEEPIN' IT REAL has been performed for Twin Cities area ‘s students. All the frankness, fun and failure that happens in high school comes out in this interactive performance piece built from stories of older teens who tell their truths to younger teens — so the new teens entering high school can avoid some of the pitfalls the older students experienced. Over the course of the performance the teen audience gets to interact and discuss how they would act if they were in the situation, deepening the impact and long-term benefits of the work.
Click here to read more about KEEPIN' IT REAL and to request information.
In 1978, ILLUSION pioneered the concept of prevention/education plays with TOUCH, addressing sexual abuse of children. Since then, ILLUSION continues to center educational programming in everything that it does. We’re always excited to partner with new schools and organizations. If you have questions, or want to partner, please reach out to Education Director, Karen Gundlach (kgundlach@illusiontheater.org).
Youth involved in arts education programs learn important messages on a variety of issues that contribute to their resiliency and long-term health and well-being. The students perform interactive plays for their peers, spreading the messages to hundreds of other youth in their schools and communities.
Project Trust is a national peer education program of a dozen plays and workshops for youth and adults that explore difficult issues they face in their lives. Read more about Peer Education - Project Trust and request information by clicking here.
Additional Educational Programming
Theater Access for Youth (TYA) provides programming for youth consisting of:
a Residency program for K-12 schools that gives students assets for healthy development and extensive involvement with professional theater artists who help them create plays. More information about Illusion’s Residency program is available here.
a Peer Education Program that partners with schools and communities to train youth to adapt and perform plays for their peers on topics of concern to their communities and to engage youth with arts and leadership-building activities. More information about the Peer Education Program is available here.
a School Touring Program that brings ILLUSION productions to schools.
a Student Matinee Program, bringing students to ILLUSION for discount performances of our Mainstage productions.
TOUCH, an Emmy Award winning film in 2016 saw the beginning of the creation of an updated film: TOUCH FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. The videotape, DVD and accompanying educational materials have been used by families, attorneys, courts, schools, hospitals, sexual assault centers and others to educate children and caring adults—well over seven million of them—in all 50 states and in nearly 20 countries across the world. Click here for more information.
Ikidowin’s Everything is a Circle
ILLUSION Theater, in partnership with the Ikidowin Acting Ensemble, the Indigenous People’s Task Force and the Ogitchidakwe Council, present Everything Is a Circle, performed by ten Ikidowin teens and three Native grandmothers. Everything is a Circle began as an adaptation of ILLUSION’s award-winning sexual abuse prevention play, Touch, but with the addition of the Ogitchidakwe Grandmothers it grew into something larger, a story about the legacy of the abuse Native Children experienced in the federal Boarding Schools.
