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Creative Writing – Oral Presentation – History
Combating Racism – Anti-Semitism – Bullying
Aligned to Common Core Learning Standards 

In-School Workshops

 

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Participating Schools: Kingston High School

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Due to the success of 73 workshops from 2015 – 2019 in the U.S. and over 77 workshops in 1997 in the U.K., Germany and France, Voice Theatre is creating new workshops to combat bullying, racism, anti-Semitism, and to define social action in Kingston, NY in 2026.

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• The Legacy Project begins with a field trip to the play LEGACY a music theatre piece about Jewish refugees on the eve of WWII, followed by a talk back workshop with the actors and the director. In eight sequential, interactive workshops students will write their personal stories of racism, anti-Semitism, exclusion or bullying. Students will then make videos of their stories. At the final workshop, students will present their videos to their classmates followed by a discussion.

 

• Voice Theatre teaching artists will create a safe place and bond of trust. In creative writing workshops, students write monologues focusing on their experiences of being the victim of or witness to exclusion, racism or anti-Semitism. We compare past and present studying the economic, cultural and historical factors that affected German teens circa 1939; a time of autocratic growth that LEGACY focuses on. Workshops also examine civics and the responsibility of democracy. The theme of the play is “one person can make a difference” and this theme is explored in tandem to students creating their personal videos.

 

• LEGACY is a play that unravels as a young American girl unearths the true story of her father’s cowardice and courage. Based on events from playwright Shauna Kanter’s life, this suspenseful story of refugees during 1939 in Germany is enhanced by our student stories of present-day exclusion, racism or anti-Semitism.

 

• As students create, perform and film their stories, The Legacy Project creates a path for students to tear down the walls of assumption and misinformation and build bridges of acceptance.

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If you want to involve your students in the Legacy Project please contact Tiffany McGehee.

 

Participating Schools

New York City
Seward Park High School, 10th grade
Washington Irving High School, 12th grade
Bayard Ruston High School for the Humanities, 10th grade
Chelsea High School, 10th grade
University Neighborhood High School, 9th grade

Upstate New York Schools:
Kingston High School, 12th grade
Hudson Valley Pathways Academy, Kingston, NY, 11th – 12th grades
Children’s Home of Kingston, 9th – 12th grades

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Detroit
Western International High School, 11th grade
Cass Technical High School, 11th grade 
Mumford High School, 11th grade
North Farmington High School, 11th grade
Renaissance High School, 11th grade

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United Kingdom
Hartcliffe High School, Bristol, England, 10th grade
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Bristol, England, college level
City & Westminster College, London, England, college level
Middlesex University, Cockfosters, London, England, college level
Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, Scotland, college level

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France

Georges Lapierre High School, Bordeaux, 10th grade

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Germany

Helena Lange Schule, Hannover, 11th grade

 

HISTORY

In 1995, in cooperation with The Bristol Old Vic Theatre, Bristol, UK, Voice Theatre produced Legacy. Due to the unique compatibility of the educational workshops and theatre performance, The Legacy Project was one out of ten projects chosen from 358 submissions from the UK to be sponsored by the European Commission in The 1997 Year to Combat Racism. Invited by the Cultural Ministry of Hanover, (Kulturamt der Hannover), the Bordeaux-Bristol Association, The Resistance Museum, (Centre National Jean Moulin) and SOS-Racisme, LEGACY was presented and the integral educational workshops of The Legacy Project took place in Germany, France, in London at the Cockpit Theatre and then in New York City in 2003 under the title, The Gift. In NYC, we worked with five high schools implementing The Legacy Project. In 2011, LEGACY was produced at the Bermann Center for the Arts, West Bloomfield, MI. Voice Theatre conducted 36 workshops in 6 inner city Detroit high schools.

 

FUNDING

Lufthansa, The Acacia Foundation, Association of Jewish Refugees, Lord Ashdown Charitable Trust, Avon International Education, Andrew Balint Foundation, Bristol City Council, The British Council, (London, Koln, Berlin), D’Avigador Goldsmid Trusts, The European Commission, 45’ Aid Society, Greater Bristol Trust, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Kulturamt der Hannover, Stadtsparkasse Hannover, Kessler Foundation, Lex Foundation, Niedersachsische Sparkassenstiftung, 1970 Trust, Pollitzer Foundation, Harry Ree  Foundation, Spielman Charitable Trust, City of Westminster Foundation. Michigan Council for the Arts, the Skillman Foundation, Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan, the NYC Board of Education.

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