LATW’s ongoing Setting the Stage for Learning brings free recordings and standards-aligned materials to middle and high schools across the county, ensuring the arts remain a vibrant presence and valuable teaching tool. The program is designed to harness the power of professional theatre to deepen students’ understanding of complex literature and subject content, while engaging them through recordings of stage plays with a wide range of topics and themes.
2020 Title Giveaway
In 2020 we will give away four new titles in this free program, including a new recording from our Relativity Series science-themed plays. Enrolled teachers will receive email alerts as new plays become available to download.
Click the enroll button below to sign up and receive our 2020 free titles, and to access LATW’s full list of titles available free to educators. Please note that all recordings will be delivered digitally.
ALL COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE
Behind The Sheet
By: Charly Evon Simpson
Directed by: Rosalind Ayres, Inger Tudor
Starring: Monica McSwain, Matthew Floyd Miller, Dominique Morisseau, Larry Powell, Devon Sorvari, Josh Stamberg, Jasmine St. Clair, Danielle Moné Truitt, Karen Malina White
Coming February 2020
An important medical breakthrough has a shameful history. In 1840’s Alabama, a slave-owning doctor performs medical experiments on involuntary subjects – enslaved women – in an effort to solve the problem of fistulas, a post-childbirth anomaly. As the experiments proceed, and he gets close to a solution, the women try to survive and even find dignity in the face of inhuman treatment.
Includes conversations with playwright Charly Evon Simpson and Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens, author of Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology.
This play is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series of science-themed plays. Lead funding for the Relativity Series is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, bridging science and the arts in the modern world.
Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood, in August 2019.
Hold These Truths
By: Jeanne Sakata
Directed by: Jessica Kubzansky
Starring: Ryun Yu, Matthew Floyd Miller, Suzy Nakamura, Matt Walker, Greg Watanabe
During WWII in Seattle, University of Washington student Gordon Hirabayashi fights the US government's orders to forcibly remove and incarcerate all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. As he struggles to reconcile his country's betrayal with his passionate belief in the US Constitution, Gordon begins a 50-year journey toward a greater understanding of America's triumphs - and a confrontation with its failures.
Includes an interview with playwright Jeanne Sakata.
Hold These Truths is sponsored in part by the California Civil Liberties Program from the California State Library.
Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood, in December 2018.
Pressure
By: David Haig
Directed by: Martin Jarvis
Starring: Jonathan Cake, Josh Cole, Sarah Drew, Mike McShane, James Morrison, Darren Richardson, André Sogliuzzo, Matthew Wolf
A Scottish meteorologist locks horns with his American counterpart as both men try to convince General Dwight D. Eisenhower that they can accurately predict the atmospheric conditions needed to launch the greatest amphibious assault in the history of mankind — the D-Day invasion.
Recorded before a live audience at the UCLA James Bridges Theater in October 2019.
A Walk in The Woods
By: Lee Blessing
Directed by: Cameron Watson
Starring: Alfred Molina, Steven Weber
An idealistic American diplomat locks horns with a mercurial Soviet negotiator during a series of conversations in the woods outside Geneva. As their mutual friendship and understanding deepens, an awareness that their work may ultimately be pointless casts a shadow over their hopes to achieve a lasting peace.
Includes a post-play discussion with playwright Lee Blessing and UCLA Political Science professor Richard Anderson.
Lead funding for A Walk in the Woods is generously provided by The John Logan Foundation.
Recorded before an audience at UCLA's James Bridges Theater in January 2019.
PLEASE ENROLL HERE
Funding for the recordings and free distribution to teachers is generously provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Coming Soon
Our New Education Portal
We believe that no student should face barriers to high quality educational tools. Plans for a new dedicated Educational Portal are underway, giving educators access to resources that include: free recordings organized by academic discipline and subject matter; curricular materials and educational tools; and a centralized section for teachers and students to post their feedback, discuss strategies, and share classroom experiences and teaching models.
