On Thursday, April 13th, seniors in Ms. Fields’ ELA class showcased the work they’ve worked on during CUNY CAT. CUNY CAT is a program that utilizes theatre type techniques to engage students and have them develop a deeper understanding when they explore different topics. To learn more about the CAT program click here: https://creativeartsteam.org/
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. Additional support from the Two Trees and Walentas Family Foundation.
The students’ performances were live-streamed to all senior classes during 3rd period.
Over the course of eight weeks students worked on monologues, dialogues, creative character design, and conflict charts. They dealt with the themes and the topics of immigration and migration in order for students to create a more complex understanding such concepts.
Below are a series of interviews done with a few students that participated.
Magaly Aspiroz, senior
What did you like about the presentation and what did you not like?
“I liked how immediately after one of us went the other person would go right after them. I felt that it was really quick, but it was also informative. The only thing I did not like is that we only had a few moments to rehearse and then we had do it immediately. We had to walk up and get an idea of what we had to say.”
What did you present?
“I presented my storyboard. Since I did a lot of drawings on the storyboard boxes, I felt that was the most adequate to present.
“The storyboard is based on a story I had already done but in the main story, the main characters are different. In the original story, the main character’s sister had long hair while in mine they had short hair. Since we focused on the topic of immigration I decided to implement it by adding where they came from, which was from one dimension into another one. I felt like that had to do with immigration because of the traveling.”
What do you think the significance of the project was?
“I think the significance of it was to learn more about immigration. Based on the lessons we had, I learned a lot about immigration, literally elements, and character design. That helped me since I read a lot of manga, so it was quite easy to do the character design because of the topic I was able to add onto it.”
William Cordova, senior
What did you like about the presentation and what did you not like?
“I liked the fact that we were able to basically express what we were working on. I feel like a lot of us put our heart into the projects we decided to choose for CUNY CAT. It was a very good experience just to be able to express ourselves in such a way. I didn’t like that it would be live streamed to the whole senior class. I would’ve preferred it so that everyone stuck to their own period and class rather than streaming it for everybody to see, but I also understand where they were coming from with it.”
What did you present?
“I presented a monologue and it was something I had to do quickly because I originally had planned a poem but it was not an assignment for CUNY CAT, so I couldn’t do it but I felt that I did pretty good with it.”
What do you think the significance of the project was?
“The significance of the project for me was just for students to express themselves in a new way that they didn’t really do before. I felt that it was a great way for the students to express themselves through their hearts and just be able to say what they mean.”
Here are a few pictures the students used as reference to create their work:
