Kravis Center Offers Virtual Programs for Adults and Students this Fall

KRAVIS CENTER OFFERS VIRTUAL PROGRAMS FOR ADULTS AND STUDENTS THIS FALL

(West Palm Beach, FL.) – The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts is offering students, teachers and writing enthusiasts a chance to learn and hone their skills through new programs happening this fall including “Hatching Writers” through the Kravis Center’s Writers’ Academy, “Meet the Writer” Women’s Book Series and “Kravis Classroom Connection”.

“We designed these online offerings to provide adults and children with additional learning opportunities through virtual platforms, especially since students started the school year online,” said Tracy Butler, Director of Education for the Kravis Center. “The Kravis Center is exploring new ways to keep the arts in our homes and employing virtual programs is an effective way to reach this goal.”

The “Hatching Writers” course is designed to alchemize a person’s unspoken thoughts and memories into a discipline of form, content, technique and style, resulting in a story. This workshop is open to the public and takes place on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. via Zoom from September 22 to October 27. A small written assignment should be expected each week. The entire “Hatching Writers” series is $200 with limited availability and is taught by Pulitzer Prize-nominated biographer, novelist and playwright, Julie Gilbert. She was nominated for a National Book Critic’s Circle Award for Ferber: A Biography of Edna Ferber and Her Circle and a Pulitzer Prize nomination for Opposite Attraction: The Lives of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard. Gilbert has taught fiction writing and playwriting at New York University and Florida Atlantic University and runs The Writers’ Academy at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

The “Meet the Writer” Women’s Book Series is for book and literary lovers. This series allows people to discover a behind-the-scenes perspective of each book as told firsthand by the author. The 75-minute Zoom session, also hosted by Gilbert, will include an insider’s look into the writer’s vision, the story behind the story and questions will be taken from the online audience.

Each session for “Meet the Writer” starts at 2 p.m. and is $25 per presentation or $80 for all four sessions. The dates and details for the sessions are listed below:

• October 8 – Susannah Marren: A Palm Beach Scandal
• October 29 – Julie Suk: We the Women: The Unstoppable Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment
• November 19 – Mary Simses: The Wedding Thief
• December 10 – Susan Goldfein: How to Complain When There is Nothing to Complain About

“Kravis Classroom Connection” will help students and teachers bring the arts into their classrooms in a fun and engaging way. The performances follow topics in math, science, technology, arts, history and social studies and range from grades 2 to 12. This innovative virtual series will offer prerecorded presentations for teachers and students to view from a designated district-approved streaming platform.

Whether it’s the true story of Annie Easley, a persistent and intelligent woman whose desire to succeed in science and technology proved stronger than the prejudice that would have denied her, or the inspiring true story of Lynda Blackmon, the youngest person to walk all the way from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in the Voting Rights March of 1965 these performances are meant to inspire and educate students as well as allow children to see themselves represented in work that is as diverse as our county.

Performances for “Kravis Classroom Connection” will be available to view for one week with two live Q&A sessions with a member of the company at the end of each week, running through the school year. Additional performance dates and details can be found on the Kravis website at www.kravis.org/classroomconnection.

“For more than 28 years, the Kravis Center has ensured that arts education remains accessible to all students in our community,” Butler said. “Students can grow their imaginations and expand their cultural horizons through the performing arts due to the Kravis Center’s generous supporters. Since 1992, the Kravis Center has welcomed nearly 3 million students served by a multitude of different arts education programs that take place at the Kravis Center and throughout our local schools.”  

The Kravis Center is also offering private coaching and voice classes for Bak Middle School of the Arts and Dreyfoos School of the Arts auditions in theater, dance, communications, piano and vocal performance, Monday through Friday, per the teaching artists availability. Any child can participate ranging from elementary to high school students.

The coaching classes will be done one-on-one via the Zoom platform and are $65 per one hour of coaching. To sign-up for the coaching classes, please visit www.kravis.org/classes to register.

For more information about the “Hatching Writers” series and to register for the 6-week course, please visit www.kravis.org/events/hatchingwriters.

To register for the first “Meet the Writer” event with Susannah Marren, please visit www.kravis.org/events/scandal.

The Kravis Center is a not-for-profit performing arts center located at 701 Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach, FL.

The Center’s mission is to enhance the quality of life in Palm Beach County by presenting a diverse schedule of national and international artists and companies of the highest quality, by offering comprehensive arts education programs – serving nearly 3 million students since its inception; by providing a Palm Beach County home for local and regional arts organizations to showcase their work; and by providing an economic catalyst and community leadership in West Palm Beach, supporting efforts to increase travel and tourism to Palm Beach County.