Introduced at Newark Arts High School in 1989, the Adopt-A-School Project is a sequential three-year, curriculum related partnership for arts-in-education. Each year, Paper Mill adopts three New Jersey high schools and retains Newark students in all phases of the program at all times.

Phase One - OurStage

Focusing on the development of an informed audience, Phase One centers around trips to Paper Mill mainstage productions with tickets and bus transportation provided free of charge. Students discuss the creative process for each show in pre-performance seminars with actors, directors and designers. Study guides for each production enhance the live performance experience for students and are teaching tools for educators.

Phase Two - YourStage

Phase Two places the students center stage when, guided by professional theatre artists placed in the schools by Paper Mill, they form their own theatre company and produce a new theatre work. Within this process, they develop essential collaborative skills while also discovering their own artistic voices. Phase Two culminates with a final performance for an audience of invited guests.

Phase Three - SkillStage

Tailored to meet a specific need of each adopted school, Phase Three allows students to design their own theatre curriculum through a series of master classes in areas of interest to the students. The wide range of workshops presented include acting, dialect study, dance, stage make-up, stage combat, lighting and scenic design and other technical theatre areas. Phase Three can also include teacher training for administrators and faculty of a particular school district.

Adopt-A-School is supported in part through the generosity of Bank of America, Fred J. Brotherton Charitable Foundation, C.R. Bard Foundation, Independence Community Foundation, The Leavens Foundation, Robert A. Mills Foundation, Nordstrom, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, The Provident Bank Foundation, PSE&G and The Schering-Plough Corporation.

Education programs are supported in part through the generosity of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and Shirley Aidekman-Kaye.