Extending to the Community

In the spring of 2012, TigerLion Arts presented The Dragons Are Singing Tonight School Residency Program in conjunction with its world premiere musical adaptation of Jack Prelutsky's book of dragon poems. To kick off the program, children from Richard R. Green Central Park School in Minneapolis and Northport Elementary School in Brooklyn Center attended matinee performances of the show at the Southern Theater, with funding provided by the Target Field Trip Grants program. A unique opportunity to get a close look at the underpinnings of creating this musical followed.

More than a thousand students worked with artists from In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre and Puppet Farm Arts, including designer Christopher Lutter-Gardella, who masterminded the large puppets created for the production. The students made a variety of dragon puppets using recycled materials, and marched their eye-tingling wonders in school parades directed by the show's director, Markell Kiefer.

Music residencies followed the puppet residencies, and Dragons tunes spilled out of music classrooms into the school hallways and onto the playgrounds. Dragons musicians, including composer Laurie MacGregor, Minnesota Boychoir director Mark Johnson, and flutist Julie Johnson taught alongside music educators to rehearse the songs with hundreds of students. The residency program culminated in a shared choral performance when the young singers from both schools came together to sing The Dragons Are Singing Tonight, conducted by the composer and accompanied by the musical production's original Dragons Band.

TigerLion Arts provided each school with songbooks, art materials, concert t-shirts, and copies of Prelutsky's award-winning book. For more information on the Dragons Residency Program, please visit the Dragons Media page or contact residency coordinator Laurie MacGregor.