Our Drama Clubs are a collaboration with Citizen Schools California at McKinley Middle School. Through Citizen Schools after-school mentorship program, we provide tutors who work with students over a 10-week period one-and-a-half hours per week, culminating in the performance of a  theatrical presentation, acted, designed, and sometimes written by the students.

In keeping with the Citizen Schools format, this after-school program is elected by students based on their interest in Drama and after having agreed to the Citizen Schools' contract of participation.

Guided by tutors experienced in the theatrical arts of acting, directing and choreography, students take on dramatic roles, memorize lines, help direct their fellow students, help decide how best to visually represent their scenes, develop their ability to speak English with expression and emotion clearly and confidently. And throughout the program, they are frequently required to write down how they think the show being prepared might be improved, how their fellow students might improve their performances, how the scenes might better be presented.

And in the end, they perform before their parents, teachers and peers--an opportunity that frequently expands these students' understanding of what they can do.