School Year in Review: APT Education in 2024/2025

Student Matinees

The cast of Much Ado About Nothing welcomes the audience to a student matinee performance.

An APT tradition since the very start, our 2024 Student Matinee Series featured William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and King Lear, along with Nathan Alan Davis’ Nat Turner in Jerusalem.

More than 5,800 students and educators from 90 schools joined us for these electric day-time performances, representing 34 counties from across 3 states. After the performances, schools were invited to stick around for a post-show discussion with cast and crew members, which led to some informative conversations and plenty of laughs.

Fall Workshop Series

Teaching Artists Ronald Román-Meléndez, Phoebe González, Samantha Newcomb and Matthew Lolar-Johnson work with students at Dodgeville Middle School.

The fun wasn’t finished after the final bow of student matinees. Following the closing of the 2024 Hill season, Teaching Artists traveled across the state to visit 22 schools through our Fall Workshop program. Over the two weeks in-classroom sessions were offered, our mighty team of Teaching Artists led 58 workshops and worked with 1,321 middle and high school students.

In-Classroom Residencies

Director of Education David Daniel works with students at Veritas High School in Milwaukee.

Over the course of the 2024/2025 school year, APT Education worked with 3,070 students through residency programs like The Words Between Us and The Potency of Poetry, as well as crash course workshops in Greek theater, Shakespeare’s plays and so much more.

Spending time at schools from Eagle River to South Beloit, from Viroqua to Milwaukee, APT Education visited 22 schools from 14 counties. 10 schools were able to receive partial to full financial support through APT Education's generous and dedicated sponsors and/or awarded grant funding.

And Many Other Adventures

Students from Tower Rock Elementary School visit the Touchstone Theatre.

• Working with community members of Oakwood Village – University Woods to hone their acting chops and get playful while reading Shakespeare.
  
• Partnering with the Prison Ministry Project to offer poetry workshops at Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, WI.
  
• Leading professionals at biotech leader Promega Corporation through a new, corporate model based on The Words Between Us program.

Thank you to the amazing students, educators and schools who made this academic year for APT Education an +A! Thank you for empowering the next generation of creative leaders and storytellers with a love for language, communication and collaboration, every day of every year.

1) Post-Show Discussion with the cast and production team of Much Ado About Nothing, 2024. Photo by Hannah Jo Anderson.
2) Post-Show Discussion with La Shawn Banks, Jim DeVita and Artistic Director Brenda DeVita at Nat Turner in Jerusalem, 2024. Photo by Hannah Jo Anderson.
3) Ronald Román-Meléndez working with students during Fall Workshops. Photo provided by school.
4) Samantha Newcomb leads as a Teaching Artist during Fall Workshops. Photo provided by school.
5) David Daniel and students from River Valley Middle School, 2025. Photo provided by school.
6) Students from Willowbrook Middle School try on APT costume items as part of an all-school assembly, 2025. Photo provided by school.
7) Students from Tower Rock Elementary School hike up the Hill, 2024. Photo by Hannah Jo Anderson.