Vijay Bookseller's Contact Details

Vijay Bookseller's Company Details

Interactive Drama for Education and Awareness in the Schools, Inc. (I.D.E.A.S.)

, , • 1 Employees
Nonprofit Organization Management

IDEAS' mission is to provide direct interactive drama programs to young people with disabilities and other disadvantages, using drama as a teaching and learning tool, for personal development, social awareness and equal educational access to dramatic arts. Rooted in the theatrical form of improvisation, along with group theater games, ensemble-building and student-generated performance showcase we impact lives by showing youth options of behavior, ways of being and behaving through theater that can carry over into everyday life. With our use of props and costumes we help awaken imagination and guide students to feel what it might be like in someone else's shoes, creating empathy that we also hope transfers to real life. We also improve capacity for literacy and communication skills by introducing theater vocabulary. IDEAS offers a direct experience where youth are encouraged to "act out" creatively, something they are often reprimanded for doing. Many of the students we work with have never had the opportunity to be part of theatrical presentation before. IDEAS provides theatrical teaching artists to schools and afterschool programs serving youth with disabilities and other disadvantages. These populations include those with physical, sensory or cognitive disabilities as well as disadvantages such as social, economic or geographic. IDEAS offers Sociodrama and Creative Drama for ages 5-21 as well as workshops for parents and staff.