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"I believe all children are born geniuses. As we grow, most of the wonder is taken away by the day to day realities of life. I have seen over the years that The Imagine Project has the power to bring this magic back into [children's] lives, allowing them to rediscover their own extraordinary potential. The Imagine Project is without question the most beautiful program I have ever experienced."
- Dr. Charles DeStefano,
Chief Child Psychologist,
Child Study Center,
Staten Island, NY |
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"Three tough guys" at PS 133 on Butler Street rehearse their roles in a production for the third-grade class created based entirely on their own experience. |
The Imagine Project
Helping Children Believe in Their Own Potential
(June 2001, Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
By Mary Frost
BROOKLYN -- They are three tough guys, see. They don't like to read -- that's chump stuff. They steal a book from a girl, taunting her with a song:
"Books are silly.
What a bore.
No one reads them anymore
I don't read nothin"
Can't be seen
On a T.V. set or computer screen."
This group of illiterate ruffians are in reality the accomplished actors in a new theatrical production put together by Ms. Olga Crawforf's third grade class at PS 133 on Butler Street in Brooklyn. The whole class has been working together since January to create the story, write the script, invent songs and work on scenery, and will present the final show before an audience of their parents, teachers and schoolmates mid-June. In a public school like PS 133, which educates low-income students who have seldom had a chance to excel at reading, math or social studies -- much less a theatrical production -- this may be the accomplishment of their young lives.
This class experience is just one of the many success stories produced by noted actor, director and writer Bill Bartlett and his non-profit venture The Imagine Project, Inc. The Imagine Project, based in Brooklyn and funded by federal and state grants through the Board of Education, has affected the lives of children in schools throughout New York City by helping them to "recapture the creativity of childhood which so often is lost by the age of ten," says Mr. Bartlett. Bartlett, who taught at the American Acedemy of Dramatic Arts (the oldest acting school in the United States) for over twenty years, founded Imagine in 1992 under the auspices of The Creative Arts Team of New York.
"It's a beautiful experience." said Ellen Monahan, Project Arts Liason for P.S 133. "The scripts are original, written from the children's experience. The children get a chance to write, sing, dance, and work on scenery. They learn the technical aspects of theater, especially musical theater, and do totally creative work.
"Bill helps the children become aware of their own creativity, incorporated into the vehicle of a play. He brings the magic of theater right here."
And it's therapeutic, Monahan adds. "Many of our children have issues. The Imagine Project helps children who may never get a chance anywhere else to shine. Thiis is a wonderful opportunity for them."
Bartlett believes that the success a child can experience when he or she "just imagine" will relate to everything they do later in life. Many people woiuld not believe the ease with which the chidren begin to articulate their ideas, he explains. In an atmosphere of non-intimidation, the chidren work with Bartlett and his team of actors and a song writer (who happens to be one of his daughters, musician Holly Bartlett-Lasala) to improvise and write a story, create and learn the songs and produce a finished musical. The Imagine team videatapes the sessions all through the process.
In some cases the final product is a book, not a show, but there is always a finished product. "The performance, the book, some symbol of their work is absolutely necessary," says Bartlett. They have to see what they've created so they can say this is our song, book or picture."
"It's very important to steer the creative energies of at-risk children away from violence and toward art", says Bartlett. "If a kid can begin to see their own potential even if it's in making up a story, a play, a song, we will have succeeded. I believe with all my heart that creativity is a form of energy, and it's got to go somewhere," says Bartlett.
What is the long term benefit of a project like this to Brooklyn kids? "The Imagine Project enriches the children's experience academically," says PS 133's Monahan. "It leads chidren to work cooperatively, translating their own experience into words, translating the words into a script, bringing the script to life on stage in the performance. This kind of work greatly improves their spoken and written language." "It's always a success," says Bartlett. "Children learn to trust themselves and believe in their own potential." Mr Bartlett has run into kids in the subway from six years ago. They never forget," says Bartlett. "Nothing thrills me more than when kids hug you, applaud, shout out 'Mr. Bill's here!'"
The Imagine Project has turned into a runaway success. Bartlett, who expects to triple his staff by next spring, regularly receives calls from newspapers and television networks who want to showcase the accomplishments of the program. But it is the creative process Bartlett is pushing, not the final show or book. "More interesting is the genesis, the beginning," he says. "Imagination: what it is, how it works." He tells about working with a group of seven-year-olds who asked: "Why is it when you grow up you lose your imagination?" The class answered their own question: When you grow up, you don't have time. "I was overwhelmed," Bartlett says. "One kid said, 'Why can't you find a jar and put your dreams in this jar? When you get older, you can go back to the jar.' The teacher was crying. It was extraordinary."
This event helped crystallize the central philosophy of The Imagine Project. "It's not about talking to kids," Bartlett says. "Look, we're going to listen to these kids, not talk to them. Let other people talk to them." It's moments like this that have helped Mr Bartlett turn his program into such a powerful tool for helping children discover their own potential.
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