Teaching Artist Boot Camp

Opera Theatre Saint Louis is hosting a Teaching Artist Boot Camp from January 7 to 9, 2027, at the Sally S. Levy Opera Center. It's a three-day workshop led by national trainer Neil Ginsberg, and the whole thing is built around one idea: bringing students' own stories to life through opera and musical theater. The starting point is the national Music! Words! Opera! curriculum, which Ginsberg uses as a springboard to get students writing and performing their own work rather than just singing someone else's.

Over the course of the three days, you'll walk away with practical tools to guide students through a collaborative creative process. The goal is to have them working as performers, composers, lyricists, and theater artists all at once, so they're not just following a script but actually building the piece from the ground up. Beyond the classroom work, there's a focus on the logistics of the job: you'll learn how to design and structure teaching artist residencies for different kinds of educational settings, so you can take what you learn here and apply it to a variety of school or community environments.

It's a full-immersion kind of thing, and the schedule reflects that. The first two days, January 7 and 8, run from 4 PM to 8 PM, and the final day, January 9, goes from 9 AM to 1 PM. Meals and supplies are provided, so you don't have to worry about packing a lunch or bringing your own materials. Registration is $50.