Program Type(s)
Certificate of Achievement 18+ Semester (27+ Quarter) Units
Program Goals
For the past ten years the East Los Angeles College Department of Theatre Arts has produced ELAC Storytheatre, touring elementary schools with children’s theatre productions or performing at senior centers throughout Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley. We would like to formalize the touring theatre program with a Certificate of Achievement: Theatre in the Community. Coursework includes practicums and theory in children’s and inter-generational theatre. The curriculum provides our students with job skills to enter the educational, health, recreational, or social service industry as a Creative Theatre Specialist or to continue on to a four-year degree with a performing arts in education emphasis. ELAC Storytheatre has a great presence in the community. Each year 15-20 students perform for 1,000-2,000 elementary students during our children’s theatre tour and 300-500 seniors during our senior theatre tour.The 'Theater in the Community' Certificate of Achievement, (TICCA), curriculum
is designed specifically to prepare students for alternative career opportunities in
theater. Besides direct employment in the stage or film industry there are myriad opportunities for employment in education, recreation and social service and community based not-for-profit theater. These include teaching assistant, teaching artist, childcare worker, recreational assistant, gerontology aide, assistant gerontology activity director and children's or community theater education specialist. As such the curriculum is built around two practicum courses, Children's Theater and Inter-Generational Theater Performance Workshop Practicum. The courses provide job related, site-based experiences for students with workshops and performances for both populations. In addition, the certificate requires students to complete a course in child development and gerontology, a stage management or directing course and stagecraft. The keystone course is The Arts in the Community. A key component of the course is to develop awareness of alternative professional careers and opportunities in education and auxiliary professions. Upon completion of the certificate the student should possess the requisite marketable skills to enter the educational, health, recreational or social service industry as a Creative Theater Specialist or to continue on to a four-year degree with a pre-determined emphasis in education, applied therapeutic theater, dance, psychology or sociology. In addition, the certificate can be attached to either a Child Development degree or stacked with a Gerontology/Health Certificate offered by the Child, Family and Education Studies Department.