Summer arts education can do more than fill long afternoons. It can stretch young artists. It might introduce them to ideas and methods they didn’t know existed. At best, it will invite them not just to perform, but to question, invent, and respond. If we want our creative community to remain vibrant, we might consider widening the circle of influence.
That belief is at the heart of why we are welcoming Hook & Eye Theater into our summer education lineup this year. They will guide two cohorts — 10 rising fifth through eighth graders, and 10 ninth through 12th graders. Each cohort will be led by two Brooklyn-based artists.
New perspectives matter. Communities thrive when they are porous — when outside artists, new methodologies, and fresh questions are allowed to circulate. Traverse City has built an extraordinary arts culture rooted in collaboration, tradition and excellence. But growth requires variation. Young artists, especially, benefit from encountering multiple approaches to making theater: classical training, musical performance, script analysis — and now, devised creation.
Hook & Eye Theater is a Brooklyn-based creative generation machine devoted entirely to original work. The company does not produce revivals or adaptations. Instead, it builds plays from scratch — often drawing inspiration from history, science, and myth — and shapes them into theatrical experiences designed to hold a mirror up to the cultural moment.
As a co-founder, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful that process can be — not only for audiences, but for the artists in the room from whom the shape of the piece is taken.
At its core, Hook & Eye practices devised theater. That means there is no pre-written script waiting at the first rehearsal. The ensemble begins with research, questions, images, and ideas. Through improvisation, writing exercises, movement work, discussion, and experimentation, a piece begins to take shape. Authorship is collective. Discovery is shared. The rehearsal room becomes a laboratory.
For students accustomed to auditioning for roles in a finished play, this approach can feel radically different — and deeply empowering. They are not simply interpreting characters; they are generating them. They are not just delivering lines; they are helping write them. The process demands curiosity, collaboration, and intellectual engagement. It asks young artists to think critically about source material and about the world around them.
What might emerge from such an intensive? The answer is intentionally open-ended. Perhaps a Greek myth refracted through modern social anxiety. Perhaps a scientific breakthrough staged as a human drama about ethics and ambition. Perhaps a forgotten historical figure brought into dialogue with contemporary language and movement. The one promise: The final performance will be original — shaped entirely by the students who build it.
The goal is not polish alone. It is perspective.
Adding this devised intensive to our summer offerings is not a departure from what we already do well; it is a necessary expansion. Traditional performance training develops discipline, technique, and interpretive skill. Devised work cultivates authorship, adaptability, and creative risk-taking. Together, they create a more complete artist.
In today’s theatrical landscape, devised processes are increasingly common at the collegiate and professional levels. Giving local students early exposure to this methodology strengthens their readiness for advanced study and broadens their understanding of what theater can be. It also signals something important: that our community values not just the preservation of great works, but the generation of new ones.
Context matters, too. Traverse City in the summer is alive with possibility. The days stretch long. Visitors mingle with locals. Festivals bloom. The creative energy of the region rises alongside the temperature. Bringing Brooklyn-born devised methodology and artists into that environment feels less like importation and more like exchange or a cross-pollination between two vibrant artistic ecosystems.
Students participating in this intensive won’t just be learning theater techniques; they’ll be engaging in a conversation between place and perspective. What does a northern Michigan summer feel like when filtered through myth? How does local history intersect with national narrative? How do young artists here interpret the cultural moment they’re inheriting?
New perspectives are not disruption for disruption’s sake. They are oxygen. They prevent stagnation. They remind us that art is a living practice, not a static tradition.
By welcoming Hook & Eye Theater into our summer lineup, we are affirming a commitment to creative evolution. We are telling our students that their ideas matter and that they are not only capable performers, but capable creators. And we are strengthening the artistic ecosystem of our region by inviting fresh processes into it.
If we want the next generation of artists to lead with imagination, courage, and intellectual rigor, we must give them opportunities that demand those qualities. This devised intensive does exactly that.
New perspectives are important — not because they replace what we love, but because they expand it. The Hook & Eye intensive culminates in a free public showing at 6:30 p.m. July 24. See you at the theater!