PURPOSE
Creative Tableaux is an all-inclusive free, educational, multidisciplinary dialog. Our program offers a unique collaboration of opera and visual arts to create an engaging and exciting educational experience for your students. Through “Creative Tableaux,” students will be immersed in the world of opera, learning about the art form as well as collaborating with professional opera performers and visual art experts to create their own tableaux vivants.

This educational program aims to foster an understanding and appreciation for opera, while simultaneously promoting the values of collaboration, creativity, and art education. With the integration of multiple art forms and disciplines, we aim to stimulate critical thinking, expand horizons, and create unique experiences for our students.

We believe it is important to promote opera as an art form in connection with other art forms, and “Creative Tableaux” does just that. Our program offers a comprehensive experience that explores the intersections between opera, visual art, and education.

ORIGINS
Creative Tableaux is the continuation of our 2021 successful Tableaux of Amico Fritz educational program.

The program is split into two parts:

PART ONE: The warm-up (In person and on-line)

on the first part of this interactive, one (1) hour long program, we walk the students through the creative process of an opera:

• How an opera is commissioned and written
• How we create the visual elements (sets and costumes) of a new operatic production.

To accomplish this, we use short stories taken from William Maxwell’s “The old man at the railroad crossing, and other tales”, paintings by Lolita Valderrama Savage and Emily Maxwell, technology, set designs & short opera clips. William Maxwell is recognized as one of the most influential writers of the last century and editor of the New Yorker. Emily Maxwell, wife of William Maxwell, and Filipino artist Lolita Valderrama Savage, who’s prolific work has been featured around the world and in our educational programs and staged productions are revolutionary artists that believed in the connection between art and music. We want to amplify their voices since their work is not widely known but is relevant to our theme of operatic storytelling.

PART TWO: All elements come together! (In person and online)

FREE OPERA PERFORMANCE AT THE RIVERSIDE THEATER

Part one prepares young audiences for part two, where they can experience firsthand a free full-operatic performance: an adapted performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Don Juan) at The Riverside Theater in NYC on June 17th, 2023. This cultivation emphasizes the importance of appreciating all creative elements and the impact the arts have on the world. Part of the production’s visual experience (scenic elements) is based on Lolita Valderrama’s sketches. The costumes are a modern reinterpretation of Emily Maxwell’s paintings. In phase one, we presented old stories, fables, operas, and paintings while emphasizing their modern connections. In phase two, we are presenting an operatic masterpiece, written in 1787, that also has modern ties that all ages can relate to.

​SCHOLARSHIPS

•TeatroGrattacielo is offering two (2) $500 scholarships to students who write the best essay about the project
•Requirements: 1-page written essay
•Theme: The theme of the essay is up to the teacher, but it must be connected to CREATIVE TABLEAUX
•Deadline: October 31, 2023
•Winners Announced: December 2023

GENERAL INFORMATION

Our two trained staff will connect with you and your students by request, for free, OR your teacher can use our user-friendly guide/script.
Please click here for information about Teatro Grattacielo, its educational mission and info about our cast and creative team.
To learn more about our STORIES, please click here.
If you need further information or any assistance, please contact our Artistic Director Stefanos Koroneos at: stefanoskoroneos@grattacielo.org

MAY 10th, 2023

We are excited to share that on May 10th, 2023, we presented our educational program, Creative Tableaux, to 800 enthusiastic kids. This interactive program consisted of a presentation, Q&A, and a mini performance of G. Bizet’s Carmen with a full orchestra. Most of these students have never heard or been in an opera performance.

CLICK BELOW TO DOWNLOAD TABLEAUX’S POWERPOINT PRESENTATION