Campus Collaborations
ACP collaborates with faculty and staff to connect Peak Performances to co-curricular programs in all colleges of Montclair State University. Peak Performances artists participate in discussions, workshops, and master classes that support teaching and learning across academic disciplines. Partnerships with campus-based programs — such as the Live Literature reading series, curated by the First-Year Writing Program, and Films and Filmmakers, an initiative of the Film Institute at Montclair State — pair academic content with themes from events in the Peak Performances series. ACP has partnered with Montclair State’s Institute for the Humanities to develop curriculum-related workshops for high school teachers; developed a series of annual State of the Arts lectures; created symposia around themes connected to the work onstage; and matched students with rare opportunities to work alongside artists in the series.
Creative Thinking
Creative Thinking (CRTH 151) is a three-credit interdisciplinary course based on the core premise that it is possible to develop tools and approaches to foster innovative thinking. There are no pre-requisites. Guest artists and thinkers collaborate with course faculty to lead the class in hands-on activities designed to help students synthesize an experiential and theoretical understanding of creative processes across disciplines. Creative Thinking was developed at Montclair State University by a multidisciplinary working group of faculty from diverse disciplines, including computer science, marketing, mathematics, music, philosophy, physics, and theater studies, in collaboration with the Office of Arts and Cultural Programming and the Research Academy for Learning, with support from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Creative Campus Innovations grant program, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Artists in Residence
The PeARL (Performing Arts Research Laboratory) initiative provides innovative artists with the resources to create a work during an extended residency on the Montclair State campus. The selected artists open their process in an exchange with students, faculty, and staff through discussions, lectures, workshops and open rehearsals.
Faculty Resources
Student Tickets: Montclair State undergrads pay a Performing Arts Fee each year which entitles them to one ticket to each event in the Peak Performances series (including all professional events and all events produced by the Department of Theatre and Dance and the John J. Cali School of Music) at no charge. To claim their tickets, students must show theisr Montclair State IDs at the Alexander Kasser Theater box office. Montclair State graduate students are invited to attend the dress rehearsal of each performance in the Peak Performances professional series free of charge.
Faculty Tickets: Faculty members who direct their students to attend an event in the Peak Performances series are entitled to a complimentary ticket so that they may also attend.
