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The Conwell Kidz Drama Program’s mission is to encourage students through creative expression to develop an appreciation for the Arts as well as connecting cross-curricular content in alignment with the NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards in Language Arts, History, Music, Art, and Dance.  Students in involved with The Conwell Kidz Primary School drama program enrich their cultural awareness, engage higher-level thinking skills, expand creativity, and discover their innermost self. Students who participate in The Conwell Kidz Drama Program become informed, responsible and productive citizens by exercising skills such as self-reflection, social understanding and cultural acceptance. The Arts teach vital ways of seeing, imagining, inventing and thinking. The Conwell Kidz Performing Arts Program is dedicated to making the arts relevant to all students while fostering excellence in all subject areas.

A recent study by Americans for the Arts and the National School Boards Association found that young people who consistently participate in comprehensive, sequential, and rigorous arts programs are:

• 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement
• Four times more likely to participate in a math and science fair
• Three times more likely to win an award for school attendance
• Four times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem
• Three times more likely to be elected to class office.

The Conwell Kidz Drama Program was instituted in 2004 and has been under the direction of Nicole Oliver since its inception. The troupe is comprised of students from the school’s second, third, fourth and fifth grades.

The Conwell Kidz Drama Program was named runner-up in the Disney Planet Challenge for the film they produced, written, edited, and starred “Mission T.O.R.C.H. Goin’ Green”.  The drama students have also performed regionally at Tempest Productions, Debaun Center for the Arts, and the Nimbus Dance Company. Students were also featured in The Jersey City Board of Education’s Anti-Bullying Rally for their performance piece “Not what you say I am” which was also featured on Channel 2 News and toured throughout the State.  In addition, group members have also performed at a number of community events, including the VanVorst Park Festival and a variety of PTA affairs. Additionally, the troupe was chosen two years in a row to represent Jersey City in the Educational Law Center’s “Kids in Concert” in Long Branch, NJ, a concert highlighting New Jersey’s performing arts programs.

“Members of the community who have attended past productions of our Conwell Kidz Drama Program are always happily surprised at how professional the presentations are,” Ms. Hernandez-Vega stated. “Every aspect of the productions — from the acting and singing to the music, lighting, scenery, to costumes and makeup — are of the highest caliber.”