Bonnie Duncan

 

Bonnie Duncan, M.Ed., is an acrobat and puppeteer. She uses various creative drama & movement techniques to strengthen Language Arts & Social Studies curricula. She incorporates scriptwriting, interactive storytelling, historical reenactments, and original student productions during her residencies.

Since 1999, Bonnie has worked and performed in over fifty schools, private & public, urban & suburban. She is a Massachusetts Cultural Council Creative Teaching Partner: Curriculum Planning & Residencies.

“I have a true drive to integrate the arts into education. I approach each project with techniques that bring students with different strengths and skills fully into the classroom and engage them with the materials they are studying. I use the arts to allow students to make their own learning discoveries and to explore their subjects on their own terms.

I feel very strongly that students need to explore their own creative gifts, make their own mistakes, and achieve their own triumphs through the process of making a performance. Although I am an artist and performer on my own, I come to the classroom as an educator first.” —Bonnie Duncan

 

Bonnie works directly with classroom teachers to plan and implement her residencies. Her in-depth knowledge, experience, and curiosity makes her residencies very unique.

She has a passion for teaching teachers so they can continue incorporating drama, movement, and puppetry into their classroom after her visits.

As an artist, Bonnie performed internationally and nationally with Snappy Dance Theater for eight years. She is resident costume designer with Rough & Tumble Theatre and she creates and performs solo puppet shows for adult audiences in the Boston area and in New York City. She is currently developing a hybrid evening of theatre that incorporates acrobatics, puppetry, and film with Tim Gallagher. She is a Resident Artist at Perishable Theatre, Providence, RI, 2007-2009.

WEBSITE LINK INFORMATION:

Personal website: www.bonnie-duncan.com

Matchbook: http://www.matchbook.org/ArtistProfile1.aspx?ProfileId=1464

PICTURES OF UTL ARTIST:

“Soul City”, created and performed by Bonnie Duncan

“Return to Sender”, created and performed by Bonnie Duncan & Tim Gallagher

STUDENT & TEACHER QUOTES:

“Thank you Bonnie, for everything. I appreciate you coming here and trying and didn’t give up on us even when we complained to you…Thanks for showing us how to do the collage and doing something that we were interested in. Thanks a lot.” –Spectrum Girls Unit student

“Thank you Bonnie for taking your time to come here and show us treatment girls stuff that some of us didn’t know about…Hope you enjoyed being here with us treatment girls, because most people wouldn’t do this.” –Spectrum Girls Unit student

“I learned a lot of new teaching techniques, and learned some great techniques for bringing art into the classroom. If you give the kids in the program a box of markers or colored pencils they’ll go nuts and be focused for an hour. I can now put that energy to create in line with a lesson.” — Judge John J. Connelly Youth Center