SYRACUSE STAGE EDUCATION
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![This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing]()
Children's Tour FALL '26
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![Young Playwright winners 2022]()
Young Playwrights Festival
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![Theatre for the Very Young]()
Theatre for the Very Young
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Student Matinees
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Young Adult Council
EDUCATION OVERVIEW
Syracuse Stage is committed to providing students with rich theatre experiences that connect to and reveal what it is to be human. Live performance provides children and young adults with a unique sensory experience that enriches classroom study and promotes creative expression and cultural awareness.
IMPACT
Syracuse Stage’s education programs for elementary, middle, and high school students are comprehensive, varied, and effective. Ranging in scope from fully produced mainstage productions to targeted in-class performances, Syracuse Stage’s educational programs support and enhance language arts, social studies, history, STEM, and art curricula. Research shows that students who participate in or are exposed to the arts show higher academic achievement, stronger self-esteem, and better ability to plan and work toward a future goal. On average, nearly 15,000 students from 14 Central New York counties benefit from Syracuse Stage’s educational programs each year.
Community Engagement programs include ongoing enrichment opportunities and diverse seasonal programming. Community conversations, scholarly panels, and social events are included throughout the season. Partnerships with community outreach organizations welcome new audiences and highlights local leaders on stage. Partnerships include: 100 Black Men of Syracuse, Golisano Children’s Hospital, the YWCA, La Joven Guardia del Teatro y Baile Latino, CNY Reads, the Onondaga Nation, La Casita Cultural Center, the PEACE Project, and Interfaith Works among others.
EDUCATION CONTACTS
Program Offerings
Children’s Tour
Each fall, the Children’s Tour brings high-energy, interactive, and culturally diverse performances to elementary school audiences. Each performance is fully staged with scenery, costumes, and sound. You need only provide the stage, cafeteria, classroom, or any open space! Performances include a talkback with the actors and our helpful study guide for further classroom exploration. Pre- or post-show sessions with our talented Teaching Artists can be arranged upon request.
Theatre for the Very Young
Theatre for the Very Young local touring productions are specifically created for audiences ages 18-months to 5-years-old.
The Ginny Parker Young Playwrights Festival
Every year Syracuse Stage invites Central New York high school students to write original ten-minute plays and other performance pieces for entry into our annual Young Playwrights Festival contest. Our panel of theatre and literary professionals evaluates each student's play. Semifinalists are invited to attend a writing workshop with Syracuse Stage where their plays will be read and critiqued. Finalists will see their plays performed as staged readings by Syracuse University Drama Students.
Young Adult Council
Syracuse Stage seeks to give teens a voice in the programming designed for them while exploring how theatre impacts their lives. The program focuses on peer led discussion and events in addition to advocating for theatre and arts participation to fellow students. YAC members can also take advantage of opportunities to learn from professional theatre artists at Syracuse Stage and through workshops, internships, and shadow programs.
Student Matinee Series
Student matinees are performances of Syracuse Stage mainstage productions offered at 10:30 a.m. for Central New York schools. Most shows in the season will have at least one student matinee scheduled during its run. Our Production Study Guides feature classroom exercises, tools for analysis, and resources for further classroom exploration.
For rates and available dates, please contact:
Tracey White at (315) 443-9844 or email trwhite@syr.edu
CHILDREN’S TOUR
Grades 3-6
THIS GIRL LAUGHS, THIS GIRL CRIES, THIS GIRL DOES NOTHING
Written by Finegan Kruckemeyer
Directed by Leslie Noble
A story about the bonds of family, growing up and finding your own unique ways to happiness.
Three young sisters are left in a forest by their woodcutter father and forced to find their own way in the world. From this fairytale beginning, three resolutions are made — one sister walks one way to find purpose, one the other to find adventure, and the third stays right where she is to create a home. Years later, having circumnavigated the globe and fought Vikings, crossed oceans, tamed wilds and achieved greatness, the three sisters meet again, as women.
NOW BOOKING FALL 2026
Tours Tuesday and Thursday mornings Sept. 29 through Dec 3. 2026. Saturday's available for community locations.
Email: education@syracusestage.org for info.
Price: $500 for one performance, $900 for two the same day
Maximum audience size:
Max 250 children
(audiences over 250 will incur a large audience fee)
Space requirements:
20’ x 30’ unobstructed space
(contact for more details)
315-443-1150
education@syracusestage.org
THEATRE FOR
THE VERY YOUNG
DESIGNED FOR
18-Months to 5-Years-Old
CLICK, CLACK, CREATE
Conceived and Directed by Kate Laissle
Click, Clack, Create is a Theatre for the Very Young experience where curiosity leads the way.
What happens if we try this?
Two playful performers welcome audiences into a space filled with blocks, textures, and unexpected sounds. A tap becomes a beat. A stack becomes a tower. A wobble becomes a surprise. With curiosity as their guide, they begin to wonder and invite their young audience to wonder with them.
Inspired by the ways young children naturally learn, Click, Clack, Create celebrates hands-on discovery. As performers and children stack, sort, balance, and build together, simple materials transform into music, patterns, and shared moments of connection. Every sound, every movement, every small choice matters. There is no right or wrong way, only the joy of trying.
Together, performers and audience create a living landscape of shapes, rhythms, and gentle surprises, all sparked by a single question: What happens if…?
Click, Clack, Create celebrates the poetry of first discoveries and the beauty of collective imagination, where the smallest gesture can open a world of joyful surprise.
NOW BOOKING FALL 2026
Tours Jan. 11 through June 18 2027
Email: education@syracusestage.org for info.
Price: $250 for one performance, $450 for two the same day
Maximum audience size:
Max 25 children - audience can include many more adults
Space requirements:
20’ x 20’ unobstructed space
(contact for more details)
315-443-1150
education@syracusestage.org
2026/2027 STUDENT MATINEES
Student matinees are performances of Syracuse Stage mainstage productions offered at 10:30 a.m. for Central New York schools. Most shows in the season will have at least one student matinee scheduled during its run. Our Production Study Guides feature classroom exercises, tools for analysis, and resources for further classroom exploration.
For rates and available dates, please contact:
Tracey White at (315) 443-9844 or email trwhite@syr.edu
Come From Away
Based on the incredible true story, this Tony Award-winning tale is filled with rousing, rowdy, rough-hewn folk songs—an inspiring tribute to one Canadian town’s heroic hospitality in the wake of 9/11.
September 16 – October 11
Student Matinees: September 30,
October 1 + 8
Les Misérables
Adapted from Victor Hugo’s classic novel of romance, rebellion, and redemption, this production brings you closer to the agony, the ecstasy, and the action than ever before.
November 27 – January 3
Student Matinees: December 1, 8, 9, 15, 16 (note: the 12/16 performance only begins at 10 AM)
The Book Club Play
The organized and ambitious Ana Smith is thrilled when a famous director asks to film her beloved Book Club meetings for a documentary. But things don’t go according to plan, and the book club drama becomes juicier than even the most salacious page-turner.
January 27 – February 14
Student Matinee: February 4
John Proctor is the Villain
Five high school girls, fueled by pop music, reclaim their voices as they make the case against a problematic “hero” in Kimberly Belflower’s twisty, modern revision of a canonical text.
March 3 – 21
Student Matinee: March 11
The Black Nationals
World Premiere
1950s Syracuse: The Nationals represent the city in the fledgling NBA while the team’s two African American players, among the first Black athletes to play professionally, fight to leave their mark on the court and on the history of the game.
April 7 – 25
Student Matinee: April 21
Dust and Shadow: The Unraveling of Sherlock Holmes – World Premiere Musical
Based on the nail-biting novel by Lyndsey Faye, literature’s most famous detective is on the trail of history’s most notorious madman in a harrowing race against the clock through the gritty streets of London.
June 2 – 20
Student Matinee: June 10
Education Sponsors
