Bread Loaf Teacher Network
The Bread Loaf School of English (BLSE) is Beyond the Page’s inaugural home and plays a crucial role in our programmatic reach.
BtP serves as the external arm of BLSE’s Theatre Program, expanding our work beyond the undergraduate and graduate classrooms and bringing it to K-12 teachers in the Bread Loaf Teacher Network (BLTN).
BLTN is a nationally visible network of teachers that attend or have graduated from Bread Loaf. These teachers work together to support one another in the profession, apply Bread Loaf scholarship to teaching, and to develop innovative, youth-informed, socially transformative pedagogies.
BtP is a resource to BLTN teachers, helping to further their innovative and transformative pedagogies. Our work spans across 15 sites in the nation and globe, and includes custom-built workshops, in-person and remote residencies, and civic engagement projects for teachers and students.
Publications
Published articles of our work can be found in the Bread Loaf Teacher Network Journal. Notable entries include:
Featured Projects
Fall 2025: Aiken High School, South Carolina
In partnership with esteemed South Carolina educator and Bread Loaf graduate, Dr. Kayla Hoesteller, and Aiken High School students.
This civic engagement project used theatre as a catalyst to empower youth voices, address community needs and facilitate conversation. The process began in 11th and 12th Grade English classrooms where students conducted a rigorous research process identifying and analyzing pressing local community needs. That research came to life through the creation of short plays written by students.
Working with BtP, those students rehearsed and revised those plays to create a culminating community performance. The community event brought together over 70 students, teachers, parents, community members, and different stakeholders across Aiken. Students, working as an ensemble of theatre-makers, became advocates for what they saw as their most pressing community needs and used the power of theatre and performance to engage the audience in conversation, reflection, and connection.
Read more about this residency in “From Research to Performance: Cultivating Critical Literacy and Civic Engagement through Community-Based Theatre” (BLTN Journal).
In Their Words
“I was so nervous about the ‘acting’ part, but Craig made us feel like a real ensemble. He taught us that theatre isn’t just about reciting lines; it’s about using your whole body to tell a truth. I found a confidence I didn’t know I had.”
“The process of turning facts into a story changed how I look at my community. I’m not just a student anymore; I feel like a storyteller and an advocate.”
“The performance was incredible, but the conversation afterward blew my mind. I didn’t expect the adults in the audience to engage so deeply. We weren’t just performing at them; we were starting a dialogue with them about the future of our town.”
Spring 2026: Intermediate Preparatory Academy at the New Mexico Military Institute
In partnership with current Bread Loaf Change Grant recipient Justice Graham and the NMMI Intermediate Preparatory Academy Students.
This one-week residency brought theatre into classrooms with a focus on building community, creating multiple literacies for learning, and providing artistic access to theatre across the 6th and 7th grades.
The week began with a performance from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the 7th grade English classes. Using the school lunch room as a performance space, BtP Associate Program Director Madison Middleton and our educator partner Justice Graham presented the scene twice with different casting, recruited students to play ensemble characters, and broke down complex text as actors might during a rehearsal.
The workshop illustrated how actors transform text from written language to a visceral experience and aimed to deepen the students’ understanding of the play. In 6th-grade classrooms, we concentrated on poetry. We introduced acting practices to the class in our first session, creating a learning space akin to a rehearsal room. With this lens, students explored two contemporary poems. Students played with language, questioned the poetry deeply, and practiced justifying every word.
Our second session built upon these skills with an excerpt from Homer’s Iliad. We staged a scene from the Iliad with the entire class, practicing how to embody text and hold multiple perspectives and interpretations while gaining analytical insight. Through theatre-making, our time in the classroom allowed students to see their classwork, community, and ultimately selves in a new light.
In Their Words
“Beyond the Page is more than a resource to classroom teachers; their residencies can transform students’ thinking, and their experience with them can last the rest of their lives.”
“Even the shyest students were excited to participate, be a little silly, and create something magical with their peers.”
“Madison gave my students a chance to express themselves playfully while synthesizing and externalizing a text that exceeded the typical scope of a sixth grader.”