Children's Theater Company Evaluation: Early Bridges and Theater Arts Training Program

The Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) is a nationally recognized theatre company focusing on programs for young children. CTC asked CEED to be a partner in developing and improving their diverse programmatic offerings for children aged 2-5.

This partnership involves two major projects:

Development, implementation, and evaluation of the innovative Early Bridges project and evaluation of the Theatre Arts Training classes for young children to improve classes.

Early Bridges is a unique literacy program that uses storytelling and creative drama to help young children transform into storytellers of their own lives. By focusing on developmentally appropriate practice for early childhood, Early Bridges collaborates directly with early childhood programs and classroom teachers to connect with classroom curriculum and goals.

Early Bridges is based on the nationally acclaimed Neighborhood Bridges program developed in 1997 by Peter Brosius, artistic director of the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis, and Jack Zipes, Professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota. CEED’s role in the Early Bridges project is to assist in development, describe effective implementation, and evaluate outcomes of the program for children and classroom teachers.

Neighborhood Bridges, The TAT Program
The TAT program is composed of a variety of classes that expose young children to drama, theatre, and creative movement to enhance creativity, social skills, and emotional development. CEED’s role in this project is to describe the current TAT classes and offer recommendations for improvement.

Project Staff

Amy Susman-Stillman

Shannon Rader

Funding

Funding for this project is provided by the Children's Theater Company to CEED through grants that CTC received from the Bush Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

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