Culver City Cluster Program Sponsored by Sony

A model for future initiatives, the Culver City Cluster is a coordinated effort with the Front and Center Theater Collaborative (of which we are members) funded by key sponsors Sony Pictures Entertainment and the National Endowment for the Arts. The goal of this pilot program is to provide sequential, standards based arts programming to students from Elementary School, into Middle and High School, with a great deal of effort placed on continuity and consistency of programs.

All students in the cluster begin in 5th Grade at one of 4 Culver City Elementary Schools in our Script-to-Stage Program. In Middle School, students who have already participated in the program explore more advanced writing techniques as well as technical aspects of film-making, in our Middle School Movie Makers Program. By High School, students enter the Culver City Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, where the Front and Center Theater Collaborative provides Teaching Artists and Guest Speakers. YSF volunteers have in the past offered workshops on improvisation, textual analysis, stage combat, and strategies for directing professional actors. YSF also provides actors to rehearse and perform in short films and readings of screenplays written by students, while teaching artists serve as on-set advisors during filming. Last year, students created a reaction piece to the plays A Raisin in the Sun and Clybourne Park presented by CTG.

High School students also act as mentors for students in the Middle School programs and receive intern credit for their work. Graduates of the program are eligible to be selected for a scholarship to our NYFA Summer Film-making Intensive at Universal Studios each summer. In the Summer of 2012, CCHS film students were also hired as teaching artists for the iPad Moviemaking Camp at the Iverbe Arts & Sports Camp on the campus of the Willows Community School.

Front and Center Theatre Collaborative Arts Partners include Center Theatre Group, The Actors Gang, 24th Street Theatre, and We Tell Stories.

Front and Center Theatre Collaborative is funded by Sony Pictures Entertainment, The Carol and James Collins Foundation, Playa Vista, The Fineshriber Family Foundation, CCEF and the Elementary School PTA’s.

Parts of this program are currently in progress at Farragut, Linwood Howe, La Ballona, and El Rincon Elementary Schools, Culver City Middle School, and Culver City High School.

OVERVIEW • SCRIPT-TO-STAGE PROGRAM • MIDDLE SCHOOL MOVIE MAKERS • PILOT PROGRAMS • SUMMER PROGRAMS & CAMPS • YSF CLUSTER PROGRAMS