A core mission of Indianapolis Opera is to provide educational opportunities for students of all ages. Each year, the Indianapolis Opera Resident Artist Program reaches 30,000 children and adults statewide each year, with additional performances in neighboring states. Our programs work to promote an enduring appreciation of opera and to create audiences for the future. We are committed to higher levels of learning and programming that foster cross-curriculum connections while fulfilling Indiana Core Curriculum Standards. Our educational partners are instrumental in bringing the power and passion of opera to thousands of students across the state.
woolston@indyopera.org
http://indyopera.org
4011 N Pennsylvania St, Indianapolis, IN 46205
Marion
317-283-3531
The Indianapolis Opera is planning a project for April 2020 in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of Holocaust Remembrance Day, and we’d like to open up some educational opportunities to students in Indianapolis and the surrounding areas. As part of our mainstage series, we are producing a children’s opera called Brundibar, in which members of the Indianapolis Children’s Chorus will perform alongside our Resident Artists. This opera was written in Prague right around the beginning of World War II, and was taken to the Terezin/Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, a propaganda camp where visiting dignitaries would be shown how “wonderfully” the Nazis were treating the Jews. It was performed 55 times by children in the camp during the war.
While it has no Holocaust-themed storyline, the circumstances surrounding its inception and performance are unique and essential to understanding our history, particularly in regards to anti-Semitism. Many important conversations, lessons, and lectures will surround this performance, and we will facilitate those as well. We are partnering with the Jewish Community Center and the Indianapolis Arts Council to host the art exhibit From the Children, About the Children, For the Children: Art and Writing on the Holocaust. This is a collection of children’s artwork, poetry and selections from the underground newspaper they ran while in Terezin. The exhibit will be shown at the JCC from January – February, 2020 and at the Indianapolis Artsgarden from March – mid April, 2020.
We are planning educational performances of this opera as part of the Any Given Child initiative and would like to know of your interest in having students attend a free performance as a field trip. We recommend the field trip for students in grades 5-9, as that is when this topic is covered at school. The details surrounding the education performances are still being finalized, but plans are to host a performance at Beth-El Zedeck Synagogue on Sunday, April 19, and at the Toby Theatre in Newfields (Museum of Art) on Wednesday, April 22, 2020.
In addition to the field trip option, we have a curriculum guide that we are happy to distribute, and we have also connected with the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis to help provide additional educational resources and programming, if that would be of interest. We are aware of the newly passed Senate Bill 132 that mandates “enhanced study of the Holocaust” and all of these programming options can help fill that requirement.
Rachelle Woolston
317-283-3531
woolston@indyopera.org
The art exhibit, From the Children, About the Children, For the Children: Art and Writing on the Holocaust will be in Indianapolis from January 1 – April 30, 2020. It will be hosted at the Jewish Community Center from January 1 – February 29, then at the Indianapolis Artsgarden from March 1 – April 15, and then at the outreach and mainstage performances of Brundibar & Vedem by the Indianapolis Opera.
Outreach performances of Brundibar will occur at Beth-El Zedeck on Sunday, April 19 and either Wednesday or Thursday, April 23 or 24 at the Toby Theater in Newfields.
Mainstage performances of Brundibar & Vedem will occur on April 24, 25, 26 at the Toby Theater in Newfields.
Jewish Community Center
Indianapolis Artsgarden
Beth-El Zedeck Synagogue
Toby Theater, Newfields