Growing Middle School Students’ Self-Confidence and Connection Through PS Musicals

Project Success’ musical program centers on students building self-confidence in themselves, navigating who they are within their roles off and on stage, and connecting with their peers and school, resulting in them gaining friendships and building community. Students increase their empathy for others through the stories they’re projecting and navigating on and off stage. With musical workshops coupled with their monthly in-class workshops from their PS facilitators, and additional PS staff and PS artistic team present as support, existing themes and activities centered on identity and self-discovery are tied into the scripts and characters our students are reading, singing, and dancing to. This is bolstered by our thirty years of experience in student-focused and driven curricula within the arts they’re exploring.  
 

Disney’s Descendants 
Sanford Middle School 

This fall, 88 Sanford Middle School students participated onstage and behind the scenes in the PS Disney Musical Descendants! This is a student-recommended production, making this musical even more unforgettable! Descendants is based on Disney’s popular characters (both villains and heroes), where their children (their descendants) navigate their identity and life choices, not necessarily basing these aspects of themselves on their parent’s narrative or beliefs. This theme mirrors the existing energy of our students, who have a strong sense of self and are continuously advocating for their beliefs. Examples of their determination and success include advocating for gender-neutral bathrooms and promoting Women’s History Month within their school.  

Willy Wonka Jr. 
Northeast Middle School 

Within the Willy Wonka Jr. production at Northeast Middle school, 71 Northeast students participated in Northeast’s second ever PS musical production. Their first year was hectic with navigating COVID and the 2022 teacher strike, this year was relatively smooth sailing with laughter, fun, and consistent school space to rehearse.  

For both of these schools, within the nine weeks it takes to rehearse and perform a musical production, PS staff see the potential of each of our students and encourages and gently challenges cast members to participate in activities and in roles they might not initially see themselves having the ability to do. With the tie-in of PS workshop curriculum, students explore themes of their productions and of characters while creating goals for themselves such as gaining leadership and the “how” to curate the support from their community. These workshops promote self-reflection that students can apply outside of the musical and into their daily lives.  

This Year’s Musical Impact

Our Descendants students shared that the musical  “… was very fun. And [they] made a bunch of new friends.”  As well as, “It was the highlight of my year, and I met so many amazing people and had so much fun.” 

When students were surveyed about their experience with the PS Willy Wonka Jr. production, one cast member wrote, “You guys (the directors) are so amazing. I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to do theater in school and you guys, even on weekends are sitting there answering our questions which you are not required to do, but you still do it and you make sure we’re all ready. If you gave us a sheet of paper that said what can we do better I wouldn’t be able to come up with a single thing…”  

We are thankful for all of our PS staff and our PS artistic team, the support of the schools, and our community for making these productions possible. We also commend the courage of our students for exploring new avenues of creativity to express themselves!