Winter Spectacle

About...

Our indoor traveling Winter Spectacle takes place to October to April on our campus at the former Heath School 18 Jacobs Rd in Heath MA. Our Winter Program serves students from all nine towns that comprise the Mohawk Trail Regional School District (MTRSD), as well as students from neighboring towns and school districts throughout Franklin and Hampshire Counties. Our campus is nestled among old orchards and pastureland at the outer reaches of the Pioneer Valley. The rural setting, while idyllic, limits access to affordable arts education. Mohawk is largest geographic school district in the state, and one of the poorest. With two thirds of our students qualifying for free and reduced lunch, the Hilltown Drama Club provides access to arts and music education that many families can’t otherwise reach.

Performers embrace every element of the dramatic process from set building and design to music and choreography to acting and playwriting. Our approach is multi-disciplinary incorporating puppets, shadow screens, mask making, movement, physical training and work on spools and other large apparatus. The school’s playing field is home to our flying trapeze in autumn and spring where it’s used for the elementary school residency, seasonal recovery intensives, community-flying lessons and to provide additional paid internship opportunities for our college bound Recovery Theatre and Summer Workshop ensemble members. Seven aerial fabrics (circus silks) hang from the rafters of the Heath School gymnasium and all-school space where our performances take place. Similar to the summer Workshop, audience and performers journey together throughout the building from scene to scene. Over the last ten years, the drama program has unexpectedly evolved into a wonderful local tradition among students, their families and the broader community—with each of the annual performances garnering standing room only crowds from Heath, Charlemont and the hilltowns beyond.

In addition to fostering a lifelong love of the arts, faculty have found students benefit academically as a result of their participation in drama, improving their reading skills and their test scores in the language arts. Our youngest thespian is five and our oldest eighteen. Every season our high school and college age student-faculty (members of the Summer Workshop and Recovery Theatre we affectionately refer to as “Arts Angels,”) join us at different times on the set to assist with the production.

Our winter theater enrichment programs provide these talented older students with a residency experience that provides them stipends and the possibility of year-round employment in the local arts economy. And mentoring younger children helps teens develop compassion, empathy and leadership skills. Barbara Kingsolver observed that mothers parent from the bottom up. We nurture and shepherd the charges in our programs and productions in the same fashion, and teach our students to do the same. Images from the students’ training and performances show a vibrant, educational community that is invested in environmental stewardship, community collaboration and mentorship of the next generation of theater artists, global citizens and leaders.

FAQ...

Who can participate?

What if my child is homeschooled?

What are the times of the program?

How long does it run?

How much does the program cost?

All Hilltown Youth are pay-what-you-can program. We try to support our work with grants and private donations. The cost per child for this program is $400. However, all tuition is voluntary—and much appreciated! We also ask families to contribute $20 for the season to offset the cost of snacks and pizza on our workshop days…We remain grateful to those families who choose to give more so we can continue to support those who can't afford to pay.

Do you have to have any prior theatre experience?

Who is the ideal Hilltown Drama Club candidate?

How do you cast the show?

We have what we call casting workshops or casting “parties” for the first 2-3 days of the workshop. We train and perform together all day. Anyone can read for any part they choose. We create a fun, supportive atmosphere where everyone feels accepted, embraced and celebrated. Its not that we don’t recognize each other’s unique gifts and talents, but we are more interested in the chemistry between groups of performers and the strength of the work those ensembles create together.

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Participant Love...

If I were to design a school district today you can be sure the performing arts would be embedded in the curriculum going back to the elementary level. So this opportunity at Heath Elementary with the Hilltown Youth Performing Arts Programs is terribly exciting. Call it a theatrical barn raising, if you will.—MICHAEL BUONICONTI (Superintendent, Mohawk Trail Regional School District)

My fondest memory of my time doing theater at Heath is when we had the entire school participate in the show. It was this giant spectacle. We were making set pieces in the art room. We had guest artists coming into classes and were reading about the show and different aspects of it. When we performed 1776 we took a giant field trip to Boston. We took the entire school and we walked past one of the historical sites that were important to our show. And right then and there in the middle of the road we all started doing theater training, which is kind of unique to our program, it’s unique to devised, physical theater specifically. I remember people walking by and stopping and looking at us wondering what we were doing. And it was just a really fun experience to train right in the places where our shows took place.—OLIVER PHILIP (age 16, Heath School Alum, Summer Ensemble Member, Program Photographer)

I’m more of a track athlete and a singer. In high school I was also on the soccer team. I was a captain. In the Hilltown Youth Performing Arts Programs I find myself drawing on all of these experiences, which is invaluable to me. I like to show the younger children that no matter what you do, you can bring it and be an artist in something.—ELI W. SHEARER (age 18, Summer Workshop Student-Faculty)