The essentials for cultural understanding & communication.

How can theater be used as a tool to explore leadership, social justice, and historical responsibility?

The Theater Exchange Program is a dynamic performance-based learning experience where 9th-grade students perform short musical plays for 8th-grade audiences. Designed to inspire civic debate, emotional reflection, and cultural awareness, each original one-act production blends history, music, humor, and interactive discussion.

Guided by Ben Franklin as narrator, the series transcends time and place to bring students face-to-face with global role models from various eras. Each play ends with a Q&A that encourages students to engage in dialogue about leadership, ethics, identity, and social change.

By participating in the Theater Exchange Program, students will:

• Gain experience in theatrical production and performance
• Develop public speaking, collaboration, and improvisation skills
• Engage in values-based discussion and historical reflection
• Connect diverse stories of leadership to modern social issues
• Strengthen civic literacy and cultural empathy