“Theatre In Our Schools” Month Launches with Kelli O'Hara's Memory (Video) | Playbill

News “Theatre In Our Schools” Month Launches with Kelli O'Hara's Memory (Video) She wants to know how studying theatre changed your life.
Kelli O'Hara Laura Marie Duncan

Remember the ice bucket challenge? The 2013-14 viral campaign to raise awareness (and money) for the disease ALS. Well, the Educational Theatre Association has launched a similar campaign—and you don't even need to get wet.

Tony-winning King and I star Kelli O'Hara , who serves as spokesperson for March's Theatre in Our Schools (TIOS) Month, has released the first of three planned video challenges, seeking your memories and stories about how studying theatre changed your life.

Theatre in Our Schools Month is an initiative of the Cincinnati-based Educational Theatre Association in partnership with American Alliance for Theatre & Education. They are hoping to promote a grassroots social-media campaign to keep and restore theatre programs in schools across the nation.

Executive director Julie Cohen Theobald said O'Hara's videos will challenge her fans to share their stories, with similar videos and tweets to be posted on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere.

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Kelli O'Hara Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

The key, said Theobald, is not just to get the participation of people who actually work in the theatre, but people who work in all walks of life, and how their theatre training or experience enriched their lives and helped their careers.

Deputy executive director Doug Berlon said the long-term plan is to move government and boards of education to support theatre education where it exists, and to restore it where it has been cut.

In the first year of the campaign, however, the plan is just to get people excited enough to share their stories.

Theobald said she wants to “highlight the importance of school theatre and capture stories of how thespians are celebrating its value in their communities.”

The main campaign will take place this March, which has been designated Theatre in Our Schools Month.

The organization's Facebook page can be found at Facebook.com/schooltheatre.

 
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