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Drama Queens
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Ellen Mulholland
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Last Updated on July, 24 2008 at 12:40 PM
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“I always did the arts growing up. At five years old, I was coaxing
friends into plays. Nothing has changed since I was a little kid.”
That’s Susannah Wood, founding director of Oakland’s Opera Piccola, an
educational theater company that brings the arts -- performing, visual
and creative writing -- to students throughout the East Bay.
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Susannah Wood (center) flanked by Tia Hicks on her left and Candace Workman on her right.
“I always did the arts growing up. At five years old, I was coaxing friends into plays. Nothing has changed since I was a little kid.” That’s Susannah Wood, founding director of Oakland’s Opera Piccola, an educational theater company that brings the arts -- performing, visual and creative writing -- to students throughout the East Bay.
Opera Piccola first opened its doors in an 800-square foot two-room office on College Avenue in 1989. Over the years since then, Wood has succeeded in getting about 75% of all of Oakland Unified School District’s schools to participate in the plays put on by her non-profit group. Today, Opera Piccola has outgrown its original office, and has just moved east to a more spacious, 1100-square-foot building in the Laurel.
Woods, who majored in the classics at Harvard University, has many dreams, but the biggest one: to have East Bay Symphony Director Michael Morgan set student poetry to his orchestra.
When that happens, she would have come a long way from helping a Fremont High School (FHS) Spanish teacher engage her students in acting 19 years ago. Wood remained at Fremont for 8 years after that as an artist-in-residence, and helped create the school’s Robeson Academy. By 1993, Opera Piccola had fostered partnerships with the high school’s feeder middle schools through her ArtGate program, and word quickly got around.
ArtGate is a residency program that puts professional visual artists, musicians, writers, dancers and actors in the classroom several times a week, and provides staff development for teachers. In an arts deprived district, this small company -- only two other staff worked full-time with Wood -- was a hot commodity. Soon, Oakland Tech and its feeder middle schools had signed up for artists-in-residencies, and Wood found herself in front of many Oakland classrooms with audiences thirsty for art. However, it hasn’t always been eager eyes that have greeted her. When Wood entered the FHS classroom in 1989, not a single student’s eyes met hers. There was apathy; there were fights, and general disinterest. A quick study, this Manhattan native changed her tune. She tried some “backdoor learning” instead, and began asking the teens about themselves – a topic they found very engaging. “If I started where they were, they were capable of college level learning.”
As she pushed her programs forward, she began to win supporters over. The City of Oakland has been Opera Piccola’s biggest fan, Wood says, providing funds from the beginning. Other financial supporters include the California Arts Council, Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, and the Alameda County Office of Education. This year, Opera Piccola will travel to San Lorenzo.
When Wood arrived in the Bay Area in 1973, she began working at 1750 Arch Street in Berkeley, performing for prison populations. She discovered that an audience she’d expected to be the least familiar with the arts was responsive to her work. She then started singing for amputees at Veteran centers. “One veteran burst into tears at this Monte Verde song,” she recalls. “I decided to bring the arts to these people.”
What eventually became Opera Piccola evolved from there. Her group has always performed for a variety of audiences, including school students, senior citizens, people who’re developmentally or physically disabled and the homeless.
“Our shows are interactive,” says Wood who recalls a performance of a Mayan tale, “Chac, the Rain Spirit.” She pulled a ten-year-old girl from the audience to play a cloud. Wood `played a boy who had been kidnapped. In the play, Wood says: “Why do I have to do all the work?” Her novice partner quickly ad-libbed: “Because you’re human.”
Wood knows you can’t write better lines than the ones kids improvise, one of the factors that go into making Opera Piccola’s community performances so entertaining.
Tia Hicks, 18, grew up in East Oakland near Lake Merritt. She attended Longfellow Elementary and Carter Middle School across town. Both schools have since closed due to low achievement. Hicks met Wood participating in one of Opera Piccola’ after school drama programs when she was an 11-year-old sixth grader at Carter. “For me, (Opera Piccola) gave me something to do after school. Most kids are just hanging out on the block. It kept me busy.”
She developed a relationship with Wood, and eventually performed in Opera Piccola shows that were held outside Carter. In 8th grade, Hicks and several other students helped Wood write a grant that funded a three-year program for Opera Piccola - Project Generations Together.
Hicks later performed with the group in high school in a show called “Being Something,” which focused on bridging the gap between youths and the elderly. While her mother had never pushed her, she did like that her daughter had a positive outlet after school. Even when Hicks commuted to Marin Academy for high school, catching a 6:45 am bus daily, she continued her relationship with Wood, performing occasionally and interning one summer.
Seven years after she first met Wood, Hicks now finds herself at the new office on MacArthur with a paid internship at Opera Piccola. It’ll cover textbook costs for when she returns to Cornell University this fall to complete her sophomore year. Although she did take a theater arts class in her freshman year, she’s more interested in social justice, which she believes, is related to the work Opera Piccola does with students in Oakland. “In most public schools, you don’t get a lot of arts programs,” says Hicks. That’s the impetus for her majoring in Urban and Regional Studies. She’d like to return to Oakland and continue her mentor Susannah Wood’s work, she says. Hicks has already begun her efforts with Project Generations Together. She also helped organize this year’s Youth Visual Arts Summer Institute, which offers high school students a free opportunity to work with professional artists, in addition to a small stipend. (See our photo essay.)
Wood, who has lived in Oakland for 30 years now, has certainly succeeded in inspiring the next generation, but she’s not done yet. Besides partnering with Michael Morgan, she’d like to create a family drama class where parents and kids can perform together. In addition, she’d like to host poetry readings at the MacArthur site. However, all of this takes more time than Wood and her staff of three can handle. She needs volunteers, lots of them.
If you’d like to find out more about Opera Piccola, whether to volunteer, invite them to your school, or view one of their many performances around the area, visit their website, call them at 510-482-0967, or stop by their new offices at 2946 MacArthur Blvd.
Here are some photos of a teacher, her students as they create people out of papier mache mixtures, and some student portraits. |
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