Illumination residencies use the tools and techniques unique to theater arts to enrich the educational experience of local students, deepening their understanding of the world and helping them to tap their creative potential. Our in-school residency program, Classroom Connections, is designed to provide theatrical skills for students to use in a wide range of courses, including English, History, and Drama, complementing and expanding on the work of classroom teachers to bring a dynamic, artistic lens to curricular material.

We train teams of teaching artists to partner with local teachers, and we create customized lesson plans designed to improve students' critical thinking skills while providing opportunities for creative expression. Our teaching artists show students how to use the tools of actors and playwrights to connect with a story and to learn ways to tell their own stories to an audience. By the end of each residency, students present their own staged adaptations of curricular works. In this more profound exploration of classroom materials, students not only deepen their understanding, but have forged their own personal connection to classic texts.

We provide multi-visit residencies on plays in the Philadelphia School District curriculum, including Fences by August Wilson, Othello by William Shakespeare, our annual production of Romeo and Juliet for middle school and high school audiences, and select Lantern mainstage productions.

Lantern classroom residencies encourage participating students to:

If you are interested in becoming a partner school or meeting with us to develop a residency for your classroom, please contact Matt Tallman, Education Director, at mtallman@lanterntheater.org or 215.829.9002 x104.