For Inly Students, Putting on Bugsy Malone is About More than Just Singing and Dancing

Inly students in the Upper Elementary program (grades 4–6) will bring the 1976 musical, Bugsy Malone, to life on Wednesday, March 2 in the Meehan Family Artsbarn at 7:00 p.m.

In the dress rehearsal video below, Head of School, Donna Milani Luther, explains how theater skills transfer into real life skills for students at Inly.

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Inly School has a rich performing arts curriculum, which is one way Inly supports integrated teaching of the creative thinking competencies that “employers and colleges say are severely lacking among high school graduates and entering students.”* For example, we offer a theater immersion program, where students at each level work on a musical production.

  • Learning to sing helps students excel in their diction and public speaking.
  • Practicing improvisation hones the life skill of relating to people in all kinds of situations.
  • Learning choreography improves students’ spatial awareness and expands their ability to learn patterns and sequences.
  • Reading and memorizing lines reinforces the academic skills they are learning in the classroom.
  • Working with a team to transform an empty stage into a memorable story empowers students to be creative.

Altogether, putting on a musical helps students learn how to confidently present themselves to the world.

*From the Boston Globe article, “Art’s Power to Teach 21st Century Skills” 12/08/08

More about the arts program and the culture of creativity at Inly School:

Donna on Creativity in Schools
[podcast]

Donna on Using the Checkerboard Exercise to Teach Creativity
[podcast]

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