In the early 1970’s The University of Colorado Theatre Department acquired a three-year Title III grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to produce a theatre that toured to both city and rural schools with children’s plays and Shakespeare.
The Colorado Caravan was composed of six actors with minimal set and props and great costumes, who traveled in one van to schools and communities across the state. Each semester we toured to around 35,000 children and teens, many of whom were seeing a live theatre performance for the first time. We developed a unique drama-friendly teaching style. The children’s plays were unadorned tales presented in a straightforward manner. We rediscovered Imagination. This style of theatre is especially desirable to teachers also. We learned enough about children and theatre that the University established an M.A. degree program in Developmental Drama, and students who took that degree established theatres like the Colorado Caravan all over the world.
When this program closed, I used the experience I gained with CU’s Colorado Caravan to establish the Overland Stage Company, which toured Colorado and Wyoming. We continued to write plays, develop and teach workshops.
Coaching with Chuck Wilcox
The history, theory, teaching techniques and scripts from these theatres will be available soon at the Developmental Theatre: Fearless Creativity website. Get in touch if you have a need or want in regards to Developmental Theatre: Fearless Creativity and I’ll share what might be helpful.