The Kaleidoscapes | an eco-theatre troupe
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Pilot Youth Mentorship Program

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Story Guides is a mentorship program for youth aged 7-13, designed to help develop strong storytelling skills, while simultaneously learning about surrounding local ecosystems. Mentors are trained actors, artists, activists, and community members, provided with unique curriculum that is tailored to the individual student and their learning styles.

The parents and caregivers of the mentees are also directly engaged in our program, as they are provided their own weekly learning objectives related to the learning of their child. The families are encouraged to synthesize the material together at the end of the week through provided discussion topics.
Learning goals:
  • Encourage storytelling skills in youth
  • Engage young people with their local environment
  • Create opportunities for students to feel a part of their ecosystem
  • Inspire learning and discussion within families
  • Create a positive association with virtual learning
  • Develop on-screen communication skills

Program Structure: 
The program takes place on a weekly module adapted to age group learning levels. The module has three components designed to introduce, apply, and synthesize the curriculum. 
  • Mentor Session: The Story Guide meets with their assigned mentee through a structured virtual session. During the conversation, the Story Guide will introduce the curriculum concepts and encourage explorations through talk, writing, and on-your-feet exercises. Each week the Story Guide will review the previous material, provide explicit instruction on a concept found in nature, introduce scaffolding storytelling strategies, and assign the week's self-guided exploration.
  • Out & About: The young learners will be offered a weekly expedition to fuel curiosity towards their local ecosystems and wildlife. Parents and caregivers also receive their own weekly assignment that compliments their child's learning goals. They may be asked to examine the same concepts in nature or investigate the role of storytelling in their own lives.
  • Dinner Table Talks: Parents and caregivers are provided with questions to ask their children "around the dinner table." Of course, this discussion can happen at any time, but is designed to open conversations about our planet and the challenges it faces. This is a time for the Mentees and their families to describe their experiences on their Out and About's, and for all to practice active listening as stories are shared.

Students are divided into two learning groups: Compass (age 7-9) and Lantern (age 10-13). The Compass and Lantern groups explore the same concepts found in nature with the older Lantern students being asked to draw deeper comparisons to their own lives. The curriculum also differs between the Compass and Lantern Groups in the storytelling outcomes. The Compass learners engage with each storytelling element every week and are asked to create a story surrounding only one concept found in nature (animals, plants, or humans). The Lanterns will learn all three storytelling elements as they build on each other week to week, and are asked to use all the concepts found in nature (animals, plants, and humans) in their final stories. Mentors are encouraged to tailor and expand on the curriculum based on their individual student.

All Story Guides, Mentees, and their parents are invited to a final celebration where the Mentees are welcomed to share their gathered stories and all are invited to share their experiences and findings from their explorations in their local ecologies. 
Sample Curriculum:
Week 2: Plants as and in nature. During this week we will be focusing on the life cycle of a flower.  While learning about flowers, your young one will learn about using characters in storytelling and explore incorporating embodiment in the creation of their own stories! 

Mentee Out & About:  Collecting Family Stories. 
Sit outside with an older family member or friend and ask them to share either: a time they had a close-up interaction with wildlife OR a meaningful moment/memory they had in the outdoors. Listen to identify the 5 W's (who, what, where, when, and why) discussed in Week 1 in the story you are being told. Identify characters you can embody in the story, and let yourself imagine details about them.

Parent/Caregiver’s Out & About: Consider: How do you listen to stories told by family?  How do you tell stories to your family?  What have you learned from your children’s stories?  What is your favorite family story to retell?

Week 2 Dinner Table Talk:  If your child asks you to share a story, please share!  They may be curious to keep hearing stories from family or friends.  Feel free to ask them what story they heard from their family member or friend.  If they share any stories, listen and consider asking questions about characters in their story, such as “What did that person look like?  How did they walk?  How did they talk?”  Leading your child to details about characters in their story will continue to encourage what they explored with their mentor this week.
​August 2020 Pilot:
The Pilot program runs August 3rd-August 28th, and is offered free of charge for families to remove barriers to participation amidst the backdrop of COVID-19. Our program has got off the ground with a team of eleven Story Guides supporting fifteen young Mentees. Every step of the way, both Mentors and Parents are asked for feedback after each weekly session. Many of our Story Guides and staff are also bilingual, and we are able to offer the Parent Guide and options for feedback in Spanish. In the future, we intend to expand our program to be fully available in English and Spanish.

Future Programming:
After the completion of our Pilot Program, our staff will be taking all feedback under careful consideration and amending program structure, curriculum content, and communication methods. 

Story Guides will be available as sustainable program offered to families and educators virtually or in person when it becomes safe to do so. Please contact emilie@thekaleidoscapes.org to learn more about bringing Story Guides from The Kaleidoscapes to your classroom.

August 2020 Story Guides:

Mariana Castro is an artist and performer born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. She is excited to be a Story Guides Mentor and use her experience to encourage others to tell stories. Mariana has participated in multiple films and theatre productions including Augusta & Noble (dir. Lisa Portes), An Alternative Method (dir. Hannah Schierbeek), The Stranger & The Shadow (dir. Claire Saxe), Bovine (dir. Alexander Popov), and LaLaLa Strada (dir. Jeff Mills). She is also passionate about filmmaking, photography, and plants! You can learn more about her work at www.marianacastroflorez.com
Casey Wortmann (she/her/hers) is an actor/writer/producer living in Brooklyn, NY. Her favorite quarantine activities are going on long walks and watching movies from the 1970s. When not in quarantine, she makes short films with the Brooklyn film collective Means of Productions and performs with the stage musical-turned-punk band RIOT ANTIGONE. Casey is a proud feminist and supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Sara Richmond moved here from Los Angeles to pursue performance and fell in the love with the wildly talented, supportive, weirdo artists of Chicago. With The Agency Theater Collective Sara worked as an assistant stage manager on I Wish to Apologize to the People of Illinois (‘13) and At the Center (‘14). Sara also stage managed Truth in Context (‘16), property designed The Spirit of ‘76 (‘16), art directed Chagrin Falls (‘16), and acted in Nautilina (‘17) and Hellcab (‘17). Sara wrote and performed the prize-winning, two-woman show, Ankle Boots: Absurd Miniature Memoirs at the 2014 Chicago Fringe Festival and its “re-boot” in 2015. She continues to write sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always honest sketch, essays, and plays. Most recently she worked as Co-Artistic Director for The Agency until taking on the new role as New Play Development Director, honing in on her absolute favorite part of theater, witnessing new stories come to life.
Valeria A. Avina: Actor, Playwright, Producer and Voice Coach based in NYC, born and raised in Durango, Mexico. MFA from The University of Iowa, and a BA from Graceland University. She is a Certified Assistant teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework. Currently she teaches vocal technique at Fordham University. In 2017, she was nominated at The Planet Connections Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play for her role in Victory Girls by Kristina Poe. Some of her TV/Film credits are commercial for Target, Cadillac, Revlon,Stratus, Fidelis Care, Indriver, NJM Insurance, Mastercard and an episode for Ralph Friedman TV Series, The perfect Murder and POSE (FX). Currently she is a collaborator of the Relief Campaign for Target, and released a short film called “Patterns” official selection of the Inwood Quarantine Short Film Festival 2020. www.valeriaavina.com IG valeavina29
Tyler Esselman is a performer, writer, and native of St. Louis, MO. He is an alum of Theatre School at DePaul University and has made theatre with The Agency Theatre Collective, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, The Jacobins, and The Antidote among others. His solo show with The Antidote - The Celebrity Guide to Mental Health and Wellness - premiered at Philadelphia SoLow Fest and will soon be seen as a short film at Philly Fringe 2020. Tyler is also keenly interested in cycling long distances, the trees and shrubs of the Upper Midwest, and St. Louis Cardinals baseball.
Shelby Corley is an L.A. based actress, singer, and teaching artist. She is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts, where she received the Ruth and Albert McKinlay Award. She has performed professionally in notable Los Angeles theaters, and internationally throughout the United Kingdom. She most recently performed in the L.A. Times’ Critic’s Choice west-coast revival of In Circles at the Odyssey Theatre. In addition to teaching Voice, Acting, and Improv, Shelby is a member of L.A. Troupe Theatre-in-Education, where she leads a fire and burn safety show in partnership with the Children’s Burn Foundation and the Los Angeles Fire Department. She loves to sing karaoke in the car and is currently working to perfect her homemade Taco Bell crunchwrap supreme recipe.
Ariana Starkman is an actor and Explorrior. She recently graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in a self-designed interdisciplinary major called Theatre and Social Change. Ariana has spent time living and studying in England, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Russia. When she is not acting or petting her cats, she can be seen outdoors hiking, walking, biking, and exploring! She is committed to the arts, the environment, social justice, healthy lifestyles, and building strong communities.
Nate Smith is an artist and activist based in Chicago. He acts in the theatre and is a company member at The Still Point Theatre Collective. He makes videos of all kinds and writes poetry, working with Marc Smith, founder of Slam Poetry. He loves to meditate and travel. He holds a degree in rhetoric from Berkeley. Climate change is becoming his main focus. He is a member of Extinction Rebellion and has started an initiative for a festival around the crisis. Learn more about it or take part at TheSixthFest.org
My name is Stephanie Marquez. I am a student at DePaul University majoring in Media Communication and Graphic Design. I desire to use my experiences and knowledge to help others in need. I didn’t decide to major in a career for social status or money. I did it because I truly enjoy what I do and I have the potential to use my skills to give back to my local community. I hope I can pass on the desire to give back in participating in this program. Passing on my current knowledge and experience and pushing someone to take that extra step that maybe they have been holding out on or maybe even someone who needed that extra push to go out there and give someone the courage to tackle a new trait or task.
Andra Beatty is an actor, artist, and educator originally from Dublin, Ohio. She graduated with her BFA in Acting in 2017 from The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, where she has been local until now, performing around the city both on stage and on screen. Her favorite credit by far has been touring the United States with Hampstead Stage Company, where she brought children’s theatre based on classic literature to young people from New Hampshire to New Mexico. When she’s not performing Andra loves to travel, hike, sing, and is learning how to embroider!
Crockett James Ward (He/Him) earned his M.F.A. in Theatre Performance from The University of Southern Mississippi. He performed with such companies as The National Theatre for Children, Sterling Renaissance Festival, Hampstead Stage Company, The Orbit Initiative, Southern Arena Theatre, Kansas Renaissance Festival, Connecticut Renaissance Festival, Skip-the-Script, The Misfit Monkies, Red Raven Repertory Theatre, and a lead role in Cedar Point's National Premiere of Adventure Island: Forbidden Frontier. Crockett has taught, directed, and hosted workshops and masterclasses at Belhaven University, Northern Virginia Community College, Coffeyville Community College, Labette HS, Mary G. Montgomery HS, Lawrence Free State HS, and The Mississippi Arts Commission.
Back to base camp
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​The Kaleidoscapes is an eco-theatre company dedicated to performing accessible storytelling and facilitating experiential learning in nontraditional spaces with those most affected by the climate crisis.
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  • Home
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  • Our Work
    • Trace
    • Story Guides
    • Artist Relief Stipend
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  • Contact
  • Field Notes