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Thursday, May 26, 2016

Wayne Brady: It’s My Line at Thrasher-Horne Center, August 27th

On August 27th, Wayne Brady will make his debut at the Thrasher-Horne Center, premiering his It’s My Line Tour for Northeast Florida audiences. In a way, this performance will be a homecoming for Wayne, who was born in Columbus, Georgia, and raised by his grandmother in Orlando. The Emmy Award winning host of Let’s Make A Deal and The Wayne Brady Show then traded Central Florida life for Los Angeles and an impressive twenty-six year career that spans television, movies, Broadway, and the recording industry. However, Wayne is most easily recognizable from his decades-long stint as a performer (and later Executive Producer) of Whose Line Is It Anyway? His current tour borrows heavily from his extensive experience in improv, most notably the titular nod to his Whose Line roots.
Wayne’s face is most recognizable from his years of work on television. From 2001 through 2004, he hosted The Wayne Brady Show, a variety show on ABC. He also credits appearances on Reno 911, How I Met Your Mother, Chappelle Show, 30 Rock, Everybody Hates Chris, and The Drew Carey Show, as well as high-profile hosting duties for The NAACP Awards, BET Honors, and the 2002 Miss America Pageant. He has been a judge on So You Think You Can Dance?, the original host of Fox’s Don’t Forget The Lyrics!, and last year was a guest host on The Late Late Show.
In addition to his television career, he also has a strong background in stage and live performance. Wayne played the role of Billy Flynn in the Broadway revival of Chicago, and was also a member of an all-star cast of Rent which was directed by Neil Patrick Harris at the historic Hollywood Bowl. More recently, Wayne starred in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, finishing his successful run this past March. Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised his performance, noting “It is a relief to report that Mr. Brady’s singing and dancing chops are of Broadway caliber. Shimmying and kicking through Mr. Mitchell’s try-this-at-home choreography and belting out Ms. Lauper’s arena-pop score, he radiates stellar heat and good humor.”
Few entertainers are as multi-talented as Brady. Facebook touts his profession as “Actor, Singer, Improv Comedian, Male Exotic Dancer.” This description accurately summarizes the variety you’ll receive when he hits the stage in Orange Park for this exclusive one-night engagement.
Tickets to see Wayne Brady live at the Thrasher-Horne on August 27th will be available to the public on June 20th, with a special Member pre-sale available today!  


Quotes from a 2009 series of workshops about improv by Wayne Brady
“Improv is an intangible art. There isn’t any one set way to go about it.”
“Kids innately know the rules of improv. As we get older, we lose these things.”
“If you’re not listening, if you’re in your own head, if you have your own agenda, you’re done. You have to actively listen at all times. I know it sounds like a cliché, but for improv you have to be in the moment.”
“Whatever you start with onstage, you stick to it. If you walk onstage with a horrible corny accent, embrace it. The audience will love it and your improv partners will love it because you’re having a good time.”


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Tickets for concerts and other events are on sale now on the Thrasher-Horne Center’s website.
The Thrasher-Horne Center is one of the nicest venues of its type in Northeast Florida. From concerts by renowned artists, to live theater, to dance, to magic and other fantastic shows, you can see it all at the Thrasher Horne-Center! Spread the word about one of Northeast Florida’s best kept secrets!
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Friday, May 6, 2016

Arts Education and School Time Field Trips for 2016-2017



Super Scientific Circus, October 11th
Reserve space for your group now.

The Thrasher-Horne Center’s popular School Time Series offers entertaining, educational and engaging performances for students. Through these educational programs, the Thrasher-Horne Center continues its commitment to enrich the lives of the students it serves. There are five exciting performances scheduled for the coming school year.

Super Scientific Circus, October 11th

Parsons Dance, October 14th

Choosy Suzy’s Bully Prevention Show, November 2nd

Seussical The Musical, February 1st

Steve Trash: Ecology Is Awesome, April 28th

For detailed information about each of the performances, check out the flyer.

Parsons Dance, October 14th
With the current school year winding down, many teachers are already planning field trips for the 2016-2017 school year. Group reservations for performances in the School Time Series can be made now. To qualify as a school group, reservations must be for 12 or more tickets. For every 12 paid tickets, the group will receive 1 ticket free. Payments will be due a month before the performances.
Clay County schools designated as Title One may inquire about the Thrasher-Horne Center Title One ticket subsidy, which is made available through the Roger and Gail Arrowsmith Fund and Thrasher-Horne Center season members. To learn more about this special fund Click Here.
Teachers who are planning their field trips for 2016-2017 can make sure their students will be able to take advantage of these excellent educational opportunities by calling the Thrasher-Horne Center Box Office at 904-276-6815.


Arts Education provides positive benefits to a community

"I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his/her vision wherever it takes him/her." John F. Kennedy

"Every child is an artist.” Pablo Picasso

Young children learn a lot by doing Art

"I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand." Confucius

Choosy Suzy’s Bully Prevention Show
November 2nd
School curricula in many parts of the United States have shifted toward an emphasis on reading and math and away from the arts. Some people now regard art education as a luxury. They ignore the fact that creative activities are the building blocks of child development. Education in the arts helps young children in each of the following areas.

Motor Skills: The National Institutes of Health has found that the motions involved in making art (holding a paintbrush, scribbling with a crayon, etc.) help young children to develop their fine motor skills.

Decision Making: Art education strengthens critical-thinking skills. The experience of making decisions and choices while creating art can carry over into other parts of a child’s life.

Visual Learning: Drawing, sculpting, and threading beads on a string help to develop visual-spatial skills. Those skills are becoming increasingly important.

Inventiveness: When kids create art, they develop a sense of innovation that will serve them well in their adult lives.

Arts Education

February 1st, 2017
“From dance and music to theatre and the visual arts, the arts give children a unique means of expression, capturing their passions and emotions, and allowing them to explore new ideas, subject matter, and cultures… Arts education not only enhances students' understanding of the world around them, but it also broadens their perspective on traditional academics.”
Dr. Terry Bergeson, former Superintendent of Public Instruction in Washington State

“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for in the patterns of music and all the arts are the keys of learning." Plato

According to Americans for the Arts, Art Education provides the following benefits.

  • Students who participate in the arts, both in school and after school, demonstrate improved academic performance and lower dropout rates. Despite including the arts as being one of the ten core academic subjects, the No Child Left Behind law has helped to push arts classes to the side. Schools, especially those struggling, can retain their best teachers by becoming incubators for creativity and innovation; places where students want to learn and teachers want to teach.
  • Students with an education rich in the arts have better grade point averages, score better on standardized tests in reading and math, and have lower dropout rates—findings that cut across all socioeconomic categories. The arts can "level the playing field" for youngsters from disadvantaged circumstances. 
  • Data from The College Board shows that students who take four years of arts and music classes while in high school score 98 points better on their SATs than students who took only one-half year or less.

What can students learn from the arts?

"Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life." Henry Miller

Ecology is Awesome
April 28th, 2017
Lisa Phillips, an arts and leadership educator and the author of The Artistic Edge, wrote a blog post about Ten Skills Students Can Learn from the Arts. Here’s a summary.

1. Creativity – Being able to think on your feet, approach tasks from different perspectives and think ‘outside of the box’ can help children to find fulfillment.

2. Confidence –Theater training enables children to step out of their comfort zone, make mistakes, and learn from them. That process gives children the confidence to perform in front of audiences.

3. Problem Solving –Students who participate in the arts are challenged to solve problems. This develops children’s reasoning skills.

4. Perseverance – In a competitive world where people are being asked to continually develop new skills, perseverance is essential to achieving success. Learning about the arts teaches students this important principle.

5. Focus – Research has shown that participation in the arts improves children’s abilities to concentrate and focus on other parts of their lives.

6. Nonverbal Communication – Theater and dance education teaches children the mechanics of body language. They learn how movements communicate a variety of emotions.

7. Receiving Constructive Feedback – Constructive feedback about a performance or visual art piece is part of any instruction in the arts. Children learn that feedback is part of learning.

8. Collaboration – Many arts disciplines, like theater or band, are collaborative. Through the arts, children learn to interact with others and share responsibility as they work together to accomplish a common goal.

9. Dedication – When kids complete artistic endeavors, they associate dedication with their feeling of accomplishment. They develop habits like being on time for rehearsals and performances, respecting the contributions of others, and more.

10. Accountability – When children collaborate on an artistic project, they begin to understand how their actions can affect others.

Arts in a Community

The arts provide us with a universal language, and they have the capacity to breathe life into a community. The arts can bring a community together in a way that commerce, politics, and religion cannot.

Seeing the performing arts, either in a play or in a musical or dance performance, can make an enormous difference in the life of a child or young adult. Some are inspired to pursue careers in the arts themselves. Others take an active interest in the arts which nurtures them throughout their lives.

"Art is the signature of civilization." Beverly Sills

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Please share this article with your friends and colleagues. The Google Plus button and other social media sharing buttons are below.

In this article, I’ve written about the Thrasher-Horne Center’s School Time Series of performances for the 2016-2017 school year. I’ve also written about the impact of Arts Education to a community. From teaching motor skills to young children to teaching young adults about responsibility and perseverance, Arts Education plays an important role.

Tickets for concerts and other events and others are on sale now on the Thrasher-Horne Center’s website.

The Thrasher-Horne Center is one of the nicest venues of its type in Northeast Florida. From concerts by renowned artists, to live theater, to dance, to magic and other fantastic shows, you can see it all at the Thrasher Horne-Center! 

Spread the word about one of Northeast Florida’s best kept secrets! Tell your family and friends about the Thrasher-Horne Center. People will appreciate learning about what they have been missing.

We appreciate you taking the time to visit us. If you have a comment about this article, please leave it in the comments section below.