St. Joseph Middle School drama program launches first production

Published November 30, 2022

St. Joseph Middle School's first production spawned by its recently established Drama Enrichment Program was performed recently in Conway. "Before the Sidewalk Ends" is an adaptation of a children's poetry collection titled "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein. Fourth-grade teacher Cara Pizzolatto came up with the idea for the show. 

The school's drama program is open to fifth and sixth graders.

She first thought she'd have the students perform Silverstein's poems as a series of skits, but she found an existing script from the WYO Theater in Sheridan, Wyo.. Its lead teaching artist, Grace Cannon, had worked with middle school students there who'd performed a play like the one Pizzolatto had in mind.