Our Programs

community enrichment Programs

Red Ladder provides creative engagement opportunities to a wide range of groups within the community – from seniors in our Japantown neighborhood to veterans and their families or youth in the foster system. In an effort to serve those most in need of the kind of programming Red Ladder offers, and to provide our participants with the most comprehensive services possible, the company has always sought and cultivated meaningful community partnerships with service agencies who work with these individuals on a daily basis – who understand their needs and the network of support required for them to achieve long-term, lasting and meaningful skill development. Through these partnerships, Red Ladder becomes an integral part of the agency’s and the community’s programming and we work together to make sure that the needs of our participants are being met.

Arts in Corrections

Red Ladder Theatre Company has a long-standing history of serving both youth and adults experiencing incarceration, with great success. These participants have often grappled with multiple and interrelated issues such as substance abuse, literacy and language barriers, employment challenges, troubled or abusive home lives, housing instability and the like, and often lack the resources to aide them in their efforts to positively affect their own circumstances. Through restorative justice techniques and Red Ladder’s focus on creative collaboration in an atmosphere free from judgement, participants impacted by the carceral system are able to visualize opportunities, imagine positive outcomes, and discover within themselves the strength to transform their dreams into reality

curriculum AND IN-SCHOOL PROGRAMMING

Red Ladder has become a leader in performing arts curriculum development. Many of the schools with whom Red Ladder works have limited or non-existent arts education programs. Red Ladder understands the power of the arts to reach students, especially those with non-traditional learning styles, and help them make sense of the world around them. The company was deemed a Demonstration Project by the California Arts Council, and has developed a broad range of activities that meet the State of California’s Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Standards and are in line with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Further, Red Ladder successfully executes curriculum based on the Studio Thinking Framework/Studio Habits of Mind with its participants.

Professional Development

For years, Red Ladder has provided professional development workshops for artists and educators. Hundreds of individuals have been trained through workshops that the company has led at annual conferences such as the Marion Cilker Conference for Arts Education (“The Arts Really Teach”), the Arts in Your Classroom Conference at Montalvo Arts Center, CCSESA’s Creativity at the Core Summer Institute, the One Theatre World (OTW) conference, as well as through the Santa Clara County Office of Education’s “Artspiration” initiative, the South Bay Arts Education Collaborative, the California Arts Project, the City of San Jose’s Arts Express program, in addition to workshops that the company has offered directly to participants. As part of this training, the company has developed a theatre arts activities handbook for use by other practitioners.

corporate training

Red Ladder Theatre Company conducts workshops that assist organizations with the development of creative thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, team building, and leadership skills – the very skills necessary to be effective and competitive in the corporate world. Through active, high energy workshops in the creative process, Red Ladder helps groups and companies expand their creative horizons and re-energize their corporate team environments. Red Ladder has worked with organizations such as eBay, Cisco, KPMG, Hopkins & Carley, and others to develop trust, spontaneity, communication, creativity and outside-of-the-box thinking skills.