Educating children in the dramatic arts was the role Beth Cunha ’04, MFA ’07 had long wanted to perform. In 1999, she came up with a concept—Traveling Theatre—an idea that began at RIC and continues to grow every day.

Traveling Theatre is now a thriving nonprofit, arts enrichment organization that occupies a modest space on Gordon Avenue in Providence. It has expanded to employ seven teaching artists—one of whom is RIC student Charles Lafond—and six high school interns from the Met School in Providence.

The teaching artists strive to provide what the Traveling Theatre’s mission statement describes as “artistic experiences for youth that strengthen creativity, literacy, problem solving, cooperative learning, self-confidence, and the life skills necessary to face everyday challenges.”

“I looked for people who were unique, special, and those who could assist in using the arts as a vehicle to educate others,” said Cunha.

Cunha received a bachelor’s degree in theatre from RIC, followed by a master of fine arts with a concentration in performance and society. She then served an internship at Providence’s Trinity Repertory Company in its development department, where she learned the fundamentals of nonprofit organizations, including fundraising and marketing.

Cunha’s final project for her MFA was “An Artists’ Jubilee: A Celebration of New England Artistry.” The four-day event, to benefit the San Miguel School of Providence, was held at the Warwick Museum of Art. It showcased professional and student artists in photography, watercolors, prints, industrial arts, and included a special youth performance—directed by Cunha—of Birmingham Jail, the story of Martin Luther King Jr’.s incarceration for organizing protests against racial discrimination.

Now that she had her teaching certification, she began searching for employees to help expand Traveling Theatre.

Cunha’s goal is to have a four-story center in Providence within the next five years. The first floor would be a student-run café and bookstore that artists could use as a resource or networking center. Offices, classrooms, and a black box theatre to host productions would be on the second floor. The third and fourth floors would be used as The Center for Dynamic Learning, a schoolwide enrichment model institution where employees could focus on the whole needs of children to help them reach their full potential.

Traveling Theatre is currently involved in Positively Aware, a collaboration with AIDS Project R.I. and URI aimed at middle schools and high schools throughout the state. The company’s teaching artists visit students to talk about HIV/AIDS and help them come up with ways to educate their peers and community.

“I think that Traveling Theatre as a company is doing some amazing and necessary work,” said Lafond.

One of several productions Traveling Theatre has coming up is The Nutcracker, which will be performed at Saylesville Elementary in Lincoln on Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 20 at 2 p.m.

Among the many schools where students from Traveling Theatre have performed is Lonsdale Elementary in Lincoln. Mary Carcalho, the school’s principal, said “Traveling Theatre has given our children a wonderful opportunity to grow to their highest potential and gain self-confidence through dramatics.”

August 6, 2008 "New program offers woodland break for Providence middle school youth" by Linda Borg

Deep in the pine woods of Smithfield, two dozen Providence youngsters are getting a taste of what summer is like for their more privileged peers....This is the first time that the Providence After School Alliance has offered a summer program for middle school youth. The three-week pilot program gave about 300 students the opportunity to swim, bike, cook and practice filmmaking in a variety of settings....

....The PASA summer program has another component: training teenagers to be camp counselors. Mayor David N. Cicilline’s Substance Abuse Prevention Council, the YMCA and the Traveling Theatre Inc. have helped PASA recruit and train 39 high school students. Teenagers will also receive career and college counseling paid for by Workforce Solutions of Providence and Cranston.

In addition, two dozen college students have been trained as youth engagement specialists by the various community agencies and they provide guidance to the high school counselors.

“We’re trained to mentor the younger counselors and be goodwill ambassadors,” said Asia Smith, a student at Pine Manor College in Massachusetts. “I’m majoring in psychology and this job is helping me decide exactly what I want to do with kids when I graduate.”

Another Pine Manor student, 17-year-old Mitzi Martinez, said she is learning as much from the children as they are from her.

“I like spending time with kids,” she said. “I’m learning to be patient and to communicate with children.”

Providence After School Alliance is thrilled to be collaborating with the Mayor's Substance Abuse Prevention Council, the YMCA, John Hope Settlement House, the Providence Housing Authority, the West End Community Center, the Mt. Hope Learning Center, and the Police Activities League to launch the first ever AfterZone Summer Program… [that will serve] approximately 300 AfterZone youth from across the city. This program will serve as an afternoon compliment to the Providence School Department’s morning summer remediation program…

The Mayor’s Substance Abuse Prevention Council, the YMCA and Traveling Theatre are also helping PASA to recruit, train, and support a cadre of 40 high school youth to assist in staffing the summer program. These junior counselors will learn the principles of youth development and will receive career and college counseling as part of their participation. Funding for the youth training and summer employment was awarded to the Substance Abuse Council from Workforce Solutions of Providence and Cranston.

December 2007
“Providence After School Alliance awards Innovation Grant to Traveling Theatre”

Traveling Theatre, whose founder and artistic director is RIC grad Elizabeth Cunha ’07, is the recipient of an Innovation Grant from the Providence After School Alliance to implement its Positively Aware HIV/AIDS Prevention Program in after-school programs for middle school youth across the city this year.

“Traveling Theatre has been working as a community partner with the Providence After School Alliance since 2007 and is extremely excited to bring Positively Aware to the youth they service,” said Cunha, who received an MFA from RIC with a concentration in performance and society. “Hopefully, Positively Aware will shed some light on the realities of HIV and AIDS and dispel any misconceptions while reinforcing the need for youth to be at their safest by practicing healthy choices and avoiding risky behaviors that could put their futures in jeopardy.”

For the past four years, Providence-based Traveling Theatre has provided arts literacy programming to more than 1,100 youth in over 14 schools spanning six cities and towns throughout Rhode Island. Its mission is to develop a community of highly qualified teaching artists who travel, school to school, throughout the state, providing artistic experiences for youth that will strengthen creativity, literacy, coping skills, communication, problem solving and the self confidence to face everyday challenges.

A final project to a college student is exactly that, a project. It is a presentation of work that will, hopefully, warrant a good grade. However, in the case of Elizabeth “Beth” Cunha, ’04, her final project in her master of fine arts program became a mix of charity, kindness and teamwork that began three years ago.

Her show, An Artists’Jubilee, which opens March 7 at the Warwick Museum of Art, 3259 Post Road, is also a charitable event. It blends fine art and graphic arts, culinary art and cake design, in a gallery exhibit and daily performance. All proceeds from the show will go to the arts program of the San Miguel School in Providence, where Cunha also instructs students.

Jubilee performances include singer/songwriter Jason Wilder Evans and Corrine Wahlberg appearing Thursday, March 8. On Friday, March 9, pianist Esther Zabinski, ’02, opens for the Warwick Improvisational Comedy Troupe Unexpected Company. And on Saturday, March 10, the students from San Miguel School, under the direction of Cunha, will perform “From Birmingham Jail” with vocals by Angela Williams ’73.

Cunha said that entertainment and creativity help the learning process on all levels. It is that belief that helped her establish the Traveling Theatre in Cranston in 2004, a community of teaching artists who visit K-12 schools across Rhode Island to provide arts enrichment workshops. So far, the company is established in seven schools across the state.

She works with a school’s art teachers to involve the students in the productions, not only to perform in them but also to build sets and design costumes. “Traveling Theatre creates a safe space and gives kids the ability to strengthen their imagination,” she said. “[The students know] it’s okay to ask questions and not worry about being laughed at.”

Cunha became involved with the San Miguel School through Traveling Theatre and wanted to continue to help their arts program. Located on the south side of Providence, San Miguel School is a private, independent, non-sectarian middle school for boys that follows the Lasallian tradition of education to those most in need. Its students come from inner-city neighborhoods and face significant risk for educational failure because of where they live. The majority of the funding for the school comes from donations. Some departments receive limited or no money. Cunha decided to plan her exhibit project to help improve the arts program.

She said she sent out emails to artists across New England asking for their help and was surprised at the amount of people who responded favorably. “Where there is a void, we move mountains to fill the void,” she said.