Connections Program at Hartford Stage Awarded $5,000 Grant from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

Hartford, CT – April 27, 2017 – Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has awarded a $5,000 grant in support of Hartford Stage’s Connections program for the 2017-2018 school year.

Connections is a five-day residency program designed to pique students’ interest in reading and literature. For five consecutive days, a Hartford Stage teaching artist visits an area classroom to lead drama based activities centered around a pre-selected book. Students explore the context, plot and characters of the book, building literary knowledge, creating suspense, and encouraging empathy. At the end of the program, each student receives a copy of the book to read and keep. Since developing the program, Hartford Stage now offers curricula for over twenty books. Two recently developed curricula have extended the educational reach of the program by including age-appropriate financial concepts such as earning, saving and spending money, wants vs. needs, budgeting and the value of money and possessions.

“During this program, we see students understanding new vocabulary, connecting characters’ lives to their own lives, and most of all, getting really excited about reading a book,” said Jennifer Roberts, Director of Education at Hartford Stage. “We are very grateful to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care for supporting our work in schools, and in particular, in getting students thinking about what it means to make smart choices with money.”

“As a civic minded, not-for-profit health insurance firm, we are always looking for new ways to give back to the communities we do business in and serve,” said Jason Madrak, Harvard Pilgrim’s Vice President for Connecticut. “Using the creative resources of the Hartford Stage to generate excitement for reading in our schools was a very unique idea, and one we are honored to support.”

To learn more about the Connections program at Hartford Stage, contact Robert Reader, Education Programs Manager, at 860-520-7263 or email education@hartfordstage.org.

HARTFORD STAGE

Now in our 53rd year, Hartford Stage is under the leadership of Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts. One of the nation’s leading resident theatres, Hartford Stage is known for producing innovative revivals of classics and provocative new plays and musicals, including 73 world and American premieres, as well as offering a distinguished education program, which reaches approximately 20,000 students annually.

The leading provider of theatre education programs in Connecticut, Hartford Stage’s offerings include student matinees, in-school theatre residencies, teen performance opportunities, theatre classes for students (ages 3-18) and adults, afterschool programs and professional development courses.  

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