Building Better People Productions

Blog

  • What Happened This Fall in Our Classes!

    This Fall was a fun time for students and teachers alike at Building Better People Productions! As we continue to live in this post-lockdown-yet-still-in-a-pandemic world, our classes were smaller in size than we expected, yet were truly enjoyable.

    • Fresh from our in-person summer camp at ArtFarm Annapolis, we held our first in-person school year classes since March 2020, also at ArtFarm. Our teen Let’s Do A Play class met on 8 Fridays (again at ArtFarm) and performed the show Share The Burden by Debra A. Cole. It’s a fun play about personal responsibility and second chances, and it really resonated with our actors.  We found Share The Burden (as well as Ms. Cole’s show Tasty Vegetables, which was performed by one of our online classes last year) on Drama Notebook, and you can find those shows, as well as a bunch of other royalty-free scripts and lesson plans, at.  https://www.dramanotebook.com/plays-for-kids/
      In-person summer camp at ArtFarm Annapolis
    • We continued our online classes with a brand new offering for 4-7 year old students called “Let’s Tell A Story”, in a format actually suggested by one of those students. Kids met weekly for 6 weeks and wrote and acted out their own stories based on prompts. We laughed and learned and it was a huge blast. The young folk have a lot to say, even the really young ones, and it was an honor to be a part of that. We also welcomed a new teaching assistant, Eliza Geib, who is a gifted performer and teacher, and who we are happy to have as a part of BBPP’s teaching faculty.
    • Building Better People is partnering with Eastport Elementary School in Annapolis, MD, in an after-school drama club, and we started this Fall with the k-2 graders. The students have written a story that we have turned into a play that will be performed for parents and family at the end of this month.

    2022 holds more classes, more learning, and more fun. Stay tuned for what’s next!

  • BBPP Receives Fall Mini-Grant

    BBPP Receives Fall Mini-Grant

    Building Better People Productions is pleased to announce that we are the recipients of a Fall Mini-Grant from The Arts Council of Anne Arundel County ! We will be using this grant to develop a play about kids and emotions that we will tour in-person and virtually to schools, libraries, and other venues during the 2021-22 school year. Funds will go to support the artists making the show, to pay youth health professionals for consulting in the development of the show, and for marketing. We are so grateful to ACAAC for their continued support of Building Better People and our efforts to make the world better for kids of all ages through the arts.

  • Spring Semester Update

    Spring Semester Update

    This Spring semester, Building Better People Productions learned along with our students!

    On Fridays, our Theater Adventures class for 4-7-year-olds continued with more games, more laughs, more imagination, and more stories written by the kids themselves!

    Teen students in our Tell Your Own Story class devised their own stories that they turned into plays.

    Kids in our Let’s Play class rehearsed and performed the super-fun show, The Bremen Town Rock Musicians, written by Rhonwen McCormack, found on Drama Notebook.com! We recorded our show for parents and friends!

    We had so much fun! Join us for more dramatic fun this summer!

  • Twins Talk About Stuff: Featuring Leslie Gray Streeter, Author of “Black Widow”, and her sister, Playwright and Actor, Lynne Streeter Childress

    Twins Talk About Stuff: Featuring Leslie Gray Streeter, Author of “Black Widow”, and her sister, Playwright and Actor, Lynne Streeter Childress

    SPECIAL EVENT!
    Monday, March 1, 7PM EST
    $15 tickets for your https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/46751

    Join us for a conversation between Lynne Streeter Childress, artistic director of Building Better People Productions  and her twin sister, Leslie Gray Streeter, author of “Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like ‘Journey’ in the Title”. They will talk about the recent paperback release of “Black Widow”, grief, parenting, race, the best member of Duran Duran, and many other things. There will be a Q&A at the end over chat. Audience members will be entered in a drawing to win a copy of “Black Widow! Book available at https://www.amazon.com/Black-Widow-Sad-Funny-Journey-Normally/dp/0316490717, or your local small bookstore.  This event is geared for kids ages 10+, and adults.

    Lynne
    Lynne
    Leslie
    Leslie
  • The Gift of the Mad Guy On Demand

    The Gift of the Mad Guy On Demand

    Watch The Gift of the Mad Guy

     

  • BBPP Receives COVID Relief Grant

    BBPP Receives COVID Relief Grant

    Building Better People Productions is pleased to announce that we are the recipients of an Anne Arundel County COVID Relief Grant for The Arts Program (GAP) award, which is funded by Anne Arundel County and administered by the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County. This grant offers relief to arts organizations in our county whose work and incomes have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. BBPP will be able to produce new programming, pay actors and other artistic folks, and know that we will be able to bring our brand of creative kindness to more kids and families. We are beyond grateful for this opportunity. BEYOND.

    Arts Council of Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County Maryland

  • Fall 2020 Update

    Fall 2020 Update

    Our Fall 2020 season of classes looked different than we thought it would. Our regular plan of in-person learning changed with COVID, and we moved all of our classes online. And it was fun! We served some of our existing students and met some new ones, and it was all wonderful. Here is some of what we did!

    • Our Theater Adventures class for little folks ages 4-7 laughed every Friday morning for 8 weeks, with kids from where we are in Maryland, as well as one in Michigan. And we even developed our own class tradition of playing the same ending game every week of making a story out of objects around us. Not a new game, but it became a new thing for us, and it made us all happy.
    • Our Wednesday “Let’s Play” class for 7-11-year-old kids rehearsed and recorded the hilarious play Tasty Vegetables by Debra A. Cole, which can be found at Drama Notebook, a wonderful website where we personally find all kinds of scripts and lesson ideas for kids, and where you can too!
    • We continued with our one-on-one lessons and audition coaching (including a mini-performance of Two Fussy Frogs by Phyllis A. Perry, also found on Drama Notebook).
    • Later in the fall, we offered a 5-week class opened to a small group of students, and we called it “Very Dramatic”. Because it was! And it was fun and creative, and we wrote our own show called “A Very Dramatic Adventure”, which lived up to its name (it included Zombie unicorns and dinosaurs, and a modern-day puppy and kitten, plus several other action characters).

    We had a blast, and we are back at it with our Winter 2021 Classes, starting in January! Join us!

  • The Big Read

    The Big Read

    We are so grateful to be able to bring you two exciting events happening this November! Building Better People Productions is excited to be a part of The Big Read of Anne Arundel County, an area-wide event, spanning several months, that promotes literature and reading. BBPP is bringing you all two events as part of the celebration, and we would love for you to come! At 4 PM EST on November 12, in honor of World Reader Day, children’s author Tina Streeter will be doing a reading of her book, Gillespie Dancing, on Facebook Live. You can watch for free on Building Better People Productions’ Facebook Page!  

    Then on Saturday, November 14, we will present a live-streamed performance of We Got It! A Show About Empathy at 1 PM EST. $15 gets you a ticket for your whole family, and you can get yours at https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/41944. You can find out all of the cool events happening for The Big Read at https://www.facebook.com/thebigreadannearundelcounty