2023/2024: FALL/WINTER
STUDENT MATINEES
Transport students into a world of imagination, cultivating a love for theater, dance, and music by attending one of our student matinees in our performing arts campus. Each performance includes an opportunity for students to ask questions of the artists and supplemental educational resources to engage students pre and post show.
Please download and fill out the School Bus Resource document and Student Matinee request form below.
View the student matinee schedule below!
Theater
IT'S OK TO BE DIFFERENT - STORIES BY TODD PARR
Grades Pre-K - 3
Thursday, October 5, 2023 @ 10:00 AM *SOLD OUT* and 12:30 PM *SOLD OUT*
Friday, October 6, 2023 @ 10:00 AM *SOLD OUT* and 12:30 PM
With innovative puppetry and stunning visuals, New York Times bestselling children’s author and illustrator Todd Parr explores timely subjects with playfulness and sensitivity in three of his contemporary stories adapted for the stage. It’s Okay to Be Different cleverly delivers important messages of acceptance, understanding, and self-confidence. Equally whimsical and heartfelt, The Earth Book is a sweet homage to our beautiful planet, inspiring audiences of all ages to do their part to keep the Earth happy and healthy. This is My Hair is a funny exploration of how silly hair can be and to always feel good about yourself.
Musical Theater
SUGAR SKULL! A DÍA DE MUERTOS MUSICAL ADVENTURE!
Grades Pre-K - 5
Monday, October 30, 2023 at 10:00 AM *SOLD OUT* and 12:30 PM
Sugar Skull! A Día de Muertos Musical Adventure, a bilingual/bicultural musical for young audiences, uses traditional music and dance from Mexico to tell the story of twelve-year-old Vita Flores who thinks her family has gone loco planning a celebration for deceased loved ones. Why throw a party for the dead? But when a spirited candy skeleton suddenly springs to life, Vita finds herself on a magical, musical journey to unravel the true meaning and tuneful traditions of Día de Muertos.
Performance Art
AMAL WALKS ACROSS AMERICA
Grades 1 - 8
Friday, November 3, 2023 at 10:30 AM
The Wallis is proud to be among the venues and 1,000+ artists welcoming Little Amal, a towering 12-foot puppet representing a refugee Syrian child, at 100+ events in 35 towns and cities on a 6000-mile journey from Boston to San Diego. Little Amal - whose name means 'hope' in Arabic - has traveled to 13 countries, beginning her journey from the Syrian border. She carries a message of hope for displaced people everywhere, especially children who have been separated from their families, with a simple but urgent message: “Don’t forget us.”
Theater
THE JEWISH DOG
Grades 9 - 12
Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 10:30 AM
Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 10:30 AM
The Jewish Dog offers a view of the Holocaust, the darkest period of modern Jewish history, through the eyes of a canine unusually fascinated by human affairs. When events separate Caleb from his Jewish owners, he is adopted by a Nazi family and employed by the SS as a military dog, witnessing firsthand the rise of Nazism. Directed by award-winning Israeli artist Yonatan Esterkin, based on the novel by Asher Kravitz, and featuring Roy Abramsohn as the beloved dog, this performance explores loyalty, identity, and the fine line that separates humanity from animals.
Dance
CAMILLE A. BROWN & DANCERS: INK
Grades 6 - 12
Friday, January 12, 2024 at 10:30 AM
Join Camille A. Brown & Dancers in an exploration of self-empowerment, Black love, brotherhood, and resilience that examines aspects of Black life that are too often appropriated, rewritten, or silenced. Ms. Brown, who plans to dance at each performance, made history this past year as the first Black director in the history of the MET opera and as the first Black female to be nominated for a Tony Award as both director and choreographer for a play on Broadway (For Colored Girls). With traditional African rhythms at its center, ink weaves together African-American social dance, African, tap, jazz, modern and hip-hop movement to lift up and celebrate Black lives, Black resilience, and Black superpowers.
Music
MICHELLE CANN, PIANO
THE WOMEN OF CHICAGO'S BLACK RENAISSANCE
Grades PreK - 12
Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at 10:30 AM
Michelle Cann makes her Wallis recital debut in a program of works by African American women composers. Sharing her passion for what she calls the “fantastic and beautiful music” of Florence Price, Cann will also play a suite by Margaret Bonds, the first African American to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and works by Irene Britton Smith and Betty Jackson King. Be inspired as a world-class pianist introduces you to nearly-forgotten gems of Chicago’s Black Renaissance!
Theater
BOTH AND (A PLAY ABOUT LAUGHING WHILE BLACK
Grades 9 - 12
Friday, January 19, 2024 at 10:30 AM
Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 10:30 AM
Don’t miss this rare and extraordinary piece of theatre, conceived, written, and performed by Carolyn Ratteray. Through clowning, poetic text, and a tour-de-force performance, Both And (A Play About Laughing While Black) deeply investigates the nucleus of Black joy. As her mother is dying, Teayanna finds herself in a netherworld between life and death as she struggles to help her mother cross over. The journey reveals the wisdom of the ancestors, invokes the legacy of the Middle Passage, and unfolds the surprising secrets within her mother’s purse. This unique and powerful story, rich with humor, raw honesty, and passion, becomes a brilliant meditation on how to reconnect with joy.
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