The board awarded $4,900 for "Shakespeare Project 2015-16," in response to a grant proposal submitted by high school teacher Heather Damron.
At its September meeting, the board of the Lambertville Area Education Foundation (LAEF) approved its first two grants of the 2015-16 school year.
The board awarded $4,900 for "Shakespeare Project 2015-16," in response to a grant proposal submitted by high school teacher Heather Damron. The grant will allow Damron's advanced theatre class, which is focusing on Shakespeare throughout the school year, to cap their study with a full-scale production of Romeo and Juliet, to be performed for the entire student body in May.
Grant money will pay for a residency by artists from Princeton's McCarter, who will work with the entire class in such areas as Shakespearean verse/scansion, character development, and stage combat. The grant will also support rental of authentic Shakespearean costumes.
"This project will engage theater students with the joys and challenges of Shakespearean work and give actors and technicians access to experts from a nationally celebrated, Tony-Award-winning regional theater," Lambertville Area Education Foundation president Samantha Iraca explained. "But of course the grant benefits every student in the school by exposing them to a full-scale student production of the quintessential adolescent love story."
The Lambertville Area Education Foundation board also awarded $3,500 for two student assembly programs featuring pianist, musicologist, and physical fitness advocate Mark Braun, professionally known as "Mr. B." Braun is the creator of the "Joybox Express," a custom-designed, three-bicycle vehicle, with a 350-pound upright piano onboard, which he has ridden the length of the Mississippi and uses for his celebrations of traditional blues and boogie-woogie music.
The grant, proposed by music teacher Jim Smith and physical education teacher Jason Miller, will fund assemblies for all students in grades four-12. Braun will ride his vehicle on-stage, discuss and perform various styles of traditional American music, and champion physical fitness, self-expression, and creativity. "We think Mark Braun is going to be both highly informative and inspirational -- and just plain fun -- for our students," Iraca commented.
The Lambertville Area Education Foundation, founded in 1992, is a nonprofit organization, run entirely by volunteers. Virtually 100 percent of its income is expended in grants to enrich the educational experience of students in the South Hunterdon Regional School District. More information is available at LAEF-for-the-kids.org.