“Did you enjoy that play?” asks Emily Olcott, one of four teaching artists visiting the school that day from Chautauqua Institution.

“YES!” the children replied in unison following the short performance.

“Well, great! Because we’re going to perform another play for you except… This one hasn’t been written yet!” Olcott responded to the students’ amazement. “In just a minute, I’m going to go into the audience and get creative ideas and suggestions from all of you! And using your ideas, we’re going to write a play right here and right now that has never been seen before! It’s going to be an epic collaboration — that means, we’re going to work together!”

Within 15 minutes, the students were applauding again — having just witnessed a story of their own devising: one that featured a leopard, a cat, and an owner, and the journey to prevent the cat from turning into a piece of chocolate.

Chautauqua Institution teaching artist Marissa Miller gets a story idea from a Bush Elementary School third grader during a visit for the Young Playwrights Project. Bush students will have the chance to create their own play as part of the JPS ELA curriculum and this partnership with Chautauqua.

This creativity will become the norm in Bush’s third grade classrooms over the next month as the students and their teachers, Hailey Bush, Tari Geisler, Gary Gustafson, and Sandi Olson engage in Chautauqua Institution’s Young Playwrights Project.

“The Young Playwrights Project combines the best of in-person learning experiences and asynchronous digital resources in integrating theater and English Language Arts education,” said Suzanne Fassett-Wright, director of Arts Education at Chautauqua Institution.

The program is presented in three phases. Phase 1 teaches students how to write their play, featuring a team of teaching artists led by Alexandra Nader, whose experience includes the famed “Story Pirates” program based in New York City. During Phase 2, students hear their plays read aloud in their classrooms, led by the teaching artists who are joined with dedicated and talented volunteers from across Chautauqua County.

Phase 3 will bring students to the institution’s grounds in June to view a select number of plays from classrooms from around Chautauqua County.

Bush School, along with third grade classrooms at Love, Lincoln, and Ring, will be participating in the project along with classrooms from Chautauqua Lake and Clymer central schools and the Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES Hewes Educational Center in Ashville.

At JPS, the project directly lines up with the new ELA curriculum made available through Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and its “Stories on Stage” unit.

“Throughout this module we explore three different plays written as stories,” said Gustafson. “Students analyze elements of drama such as characters, settings, problems and solutions and are introduced to a script, dialogue, and cast of characters. Students are also exposed to the other important elements of drama such as stage directions, background sound, lighting, music and scene and act changes.”

Over the next several weeks, students will work collaboratively with each other to create characters, dialogue, stage directions, and other elements of drama. The plays will then be sent to the Young Playwrights committee to be evaluated. One play from each school will then be brought to life in an actual performance during a field trip to the Institution in June.

“We’re thrilled that the Young Playwrights Project supports JPS’s new ELA curriculum,” added Fassett-Wright. “Our goal is to be in constant conversation with Chautauqua County schools to hear what they need and to provide resources to support them through arts-integrated learning.”

Bush teachers are hopeful this experience — both in and outside the classroom — will provide an experience that students will never forget.

“The 3rd grade team at Bush elementary hopes that students find a love of drama, theater and writing,” Gustafson said. “We hope to inspire students to want to participate in the theater as they continue their education and hope that this will create experiences the students will carry with them for the rest of their life.”