This Week
This week, Quest hits the road again. First, we are at the Maryland Artist/Teacher Institute (MATI) at the University of Maryland University College. Teams of teachers, administrators, and parents from schools all over Maryland come to MATI for professional development in arts integration. Quest's President/Artistic Director, Tim McCarty will teach a workshop on Quest's visual theatre approach to learning. Quest's Wings Company will also give a performance of "Road Signs." The show is an introduction to Deaf culture and to the connection between visual theatre and literacy.
This weekend, the Wings Company heads to Salisbury University to perform "I Carry the Flag" at the university's summer institute in the arts. This year, two students participating in the music program will join the cast to provide musical accompaniment for the show. There is no written score for "Flag..." The musicians improvise musical motifs and underscoring to support the action of the play. It's a great learning experience for the students. Tim McCarty and Mervin Primeaux will stay on to teach a master class in visual theatre to the institute's acting students. The class will build upon Flag's use of negative space and fabric to tell stories.
We are grateful for the support over the years from the institute's director Robert Smith. This is Robert's final summer with the program. He will continue to serve on the university's theatre faculty. It has been a joy each summer to share visual theatre with the young artists attending the institute. They are a marvelous audience and are some of Quest's biggest fans.
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