How Do You Know If They Get IT???

This post comes from the delightful Julianne Harper. A third-year member of Open Dream Ensemble and UNCSA School of Dance graduate, Julianne has stepped into a leadership role this season as Co-Tour Manager. The many facets of her work for Open Dream are all greatly appreciated - as is her tap dancing robot!


HELLOOOO THERE! As you might know, Open Dream works with many students at various schools across North Carolina. We focus on teaching second through fifth grade science curriculum( as Haydee has mentioned). In many cases the students have yet to start their study on such topics, so we are the introduction. With this comes great responsibility and challenge on our end -- to make sure we get things started right!

Since Open Dream focuses on teaching science through the arts, the kids get to learn about ecosystems through raps, dances, and skits they develop themselves to showcase their understanding of the material. Just having a creative outlet to explore such concepts like ecosystems is new to the children, so that paired with the new science information can present a big question…"How do you know they get it?" Throughout the controlled chaos that ensues on these explorations, I find myself often wondering if they have grasped the curriculum, if I have done my job as a teacher. Of course they are having fun and when they present their work it is filled with inventive creativity, but the question still remains. So at the end of each class, each exploration, comes review time. "What can you tell me about ecosystems?" As almost every hand raises, the classroom is flooded with information the students have learned about ecosystems, or whatever the topic is for that day. And it's not just memorized information, it is discoveries that the kids have made that has ultimately led them to a true understanding of the material…SUCCESS!

Busy Times

This post is from one of the Open Dream newbies - Adrian Knowles. A recent graduate of the UNCSA School of Drama, Adrian is an actor and all-around nice fellow! (Despite what his character in our upcoming web series might have you believing).


Has time flown by that quickly? It's already late in September and it feels like yesterday that us Open Dreamers were meeting and greeting around a table in the basement of a local theater. 9-5 workdays, just like a real job! And believe me, what a real job it is. I graduated from UNCSA in May and I like telling myself I nailed my first professional audition, but I didn't know what I was in for. Rehearsing for a show that includes singing and playing music, both of which have been a struggle for me since I was a kid, has been an eye opening experience. But the beautiful thing is, all of us have been asked to step outside our comfort zone. The 4 musicians in the cast are being called on to act and the actors are being asked to play instruments. The support we receive from our fellow cast members has been essential to keeping positive in times of stress. But there's more! We're TEACHING. We just finished our first 2 week teaching gig on the 23rd. It was a little daunting, but we were well prepared thanks to a week long training session. The kids made the experience well worth it. I'm excited to see what we get into next.

Dirty Dishes and the Science Curriculum

This post is from the talented Haydee Thompson. When not studying science or doing dishes, Haydee is an actress with the Open Dream Ensemble. We are fortunate to have her as a member for the fifth year. This season she also takes up the post of Residency Manager.

So our first residency has ended and I am enjoying my first real weekend at home catching up on laundry and many other household chores.
We spent the last two weeks at Shuford Elementary in Conover NC. This year we are teaching the new science curriculum that will be in effect next school year.
Everyday, four different grades and four different science subjects, amounting to close to 40 separate lesson plans. PHEW! The troupe and I have a joke that if its not in the curriculum we just don't know. We had the pleasure of teaching everything from as far out as the universe to tiny seeds, and that was just the third grade. Add the water-cycle,
life-cycle, ecosystems, genetics, volcanoes, fossils, (the list does go on and on), and I find myself actually relearning a thing or two! The challenges were creating fun and effective experiential activities for each days focus. The reward was certainly the enthusiasm of the kids and the obvious learning and understanding that was apparent. It takes a lot of work to have fun, and although the dirty dishes in my sink might not think so, all this hard work is well worth it.

Season Seven

Amazing and true - Open Dream Ensemble is now in our seventh season of bringing original musical theater productions and in-school residencies to students across North Carolina and beyond!

We started season seven on August 8 with four weeks of rehearsal and shooting for our new season of our web series The Adventures of the Open Dream Ensemble. We then moved to a quick week of teaching artist training and pushed into a two-week residency at Shuford Elementary School in Conover, NC. Phew! Today is a well-earned day off then onto three weeks of performances before we begin another two-week residency.

Our blog is becoming active again. We'll be posting entries from our nine talented cast members in the coming months -- so stay tuned!