Teacher Barbara Willis sees theater at the Capitol Center as a way to connect her classroom with the wider world.
I'm Deborah Schachter from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, and this is Giving Matters.
Every year thousands of New Hampshire schoolchildren attend the theater at the Capitol Center for the Arts.
Barbara Willis teaches at the Beaver Meadow School in Concord. She makes theater a regular part of her curriculum.
"I really feel a responsibility to open childrens' eyes to things that they don't see on a regular basis. We integrate the arts into the curriculum so we might work with something in the classroom - for example, the Underground Railroad - and then bring the students to a production at the Capitol Center."
"The most important part is that it deepens the childrens' comprehension. Children often say, 'I really get it - I really understand what they were saying in that book."
Maya Gagne is a third grader at Beaver Meadow School.
"When I go to the Capitol Center, when I sit down, I feel really really excited. It's just really fun.
"It's different from television because it feels like you're a part of it. Because when you're at television, let's say you're in New Hampshire, but the people who are actually doing it are like way in Chicago or something, it's so far away. You're a part of it - you're a part of the audience, you're part of the show."
Beyond the excitement, Barbara Willis sees theater as a way to connect her classroom with the wider world.
"We're a world community today, and we need to expose our kids to the world as a community, and theater, and the Capitol Center for the Arts is one way that we do that."
The work of nonprofits touches each of us - the people we care about, and issues that matter.
You can support this nonprofit and many others. More information is available at the Giving Matters page at NHPR.org.
Giving Matters is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
