Schedule a field trip to Marin's premiere professional theatre!

MTC's Student Matinees are special weekday morning performances of plays we're presenting in our regular season – the same plays that are delighting audiences, earning rave reviews, and contributing to the cultural fabric of our community. This is a unique opportunity for students to experience accomplished artists telling compelling stories in an intimate professional theatre. Thousands of middle and high school students from dozens of schools have attended student matinee performances at MTC .

Student matinee performances begin at 11am at our theatre in Mill Valley. Each performance is followed by a lively question-and-answer session with the cast and often the director. MTC can send a teaching artist into the school to prepare the students for the production with a series of participatory workshops. These workshops might include acting exercises, group games designed to immerse the students in a particular historical period, and discussions of challenging issues raised in the play. In 2011/12, we will have special workshops prepared specifically for The Glass Menagerie and Othello, with limited funding available to provide these workshops at a discounted rate or for free for qualifying schools.

A preview Performance Guide, with a synopsis and dramaturgical information on each production as well as suggestions for classroom exercises, is available for download here.

Scroll down for more details, download a ticket hold request form from the right side of this page to reserve tickets, or contact us at education@marintheatre.org for more information.

2011-2012

The Glass Menagerie
by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Jasson Minadakis
Student Matinees December 1 and 13, 2011, 11am

Celebrate the centennial of Tennessee William’s birth. An emotionally devastating portrait of hope, this is not only the seminal American playwright’s most famous play, but also one of his most personal. In a memory of Saint Louis during the 1930s, aspiring poet Tom Wingfield reluctantly works in a warehouse to support his overbearing mother and debilitatingly shy sister. Pushed by his mother, he finds his sister a gentleman caller to try to coax her from her fragile private world.

The Shenson Foundation provides discounted and free tickets to schools that otherwise would not be able to participate.

Othello, the Moor of Venice
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Jasson Minadakis
Student Matinees April 5, 10 and 17, 2012, 11am

Experience Shakespeare at his most taut and tense as we pit two of the best actors in the Bay Area against each other in psychological single combat. Don’t miss Aldo Billingslea as Othello and Craig Marker as Iago in our first production by the Bard on our intimate stage. With 20 Shakespeare productions under his belt, Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis helms this tragic, timeless tale of love, deceit, jealousy and murder.

Tickets to student matinee performances of Othello are free for middle and high schools thanks to the NEA's Shakespeare for a New Generation program. Each school that attends also receives two free in-school workshops with a teaching artist from MTC, often a member of the cast. Tickets are limited, so please contact us right away to ensure your school's participation.

The National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest presents Shakespeare for a New Generation. Marin Theatre Company is one of 36 professional theater companies selected to participate in Shakespeare for a New Generation, bringing the finest productions of Shakespeare to middle- and high-school students in communities across the United States. This is the ninth year of Shakespeare for a New Generation, the largest tour of Shakespeare in American history.

Call 415.388.5200 x3310 or email education@marintheatre.org for more information or to book tickets for a student matinee performance.