About Us
Madeline Calandrillo and Sindy I Castro were both students in the M.A. in Applied Theatre program at the City University of New York. They took a course that explored Theatre in Education (TIE), interactive plays that place participants as the experts of their own learning. Interested in the idea of play and exploring social justice with early learners, they ventured into the world of the butterflies/mariposas in the Great Green Garden and the rest is history!
Partnering with a school in Brooklyn, Madeline and Sindy (in collaboration with some of their classmates) created and implemented original TIE residencies with Spanish/English Dual Language kindergarten and 1st grade classes and one general education kindergarten class. Over two years, using interactive theatre elements, they partnered with classroom teachers to integrate with social studies and science curriculum in both English and Spanish. The residencies were facilitated simultaneously in English and Spanish, pushing for language equity in the representation of languages in the Dual Language classrooms. In addition, the residencies created opportunities for students to share about their home languages (Bengali and Arabic) in the general education classroom, as well as learning Spanish vocabulary.
Inspired by the richness of the Dual Language classrooms and the rich experience of implementing multilingual TIE plays, Madeline and Sindy desired to continue their work in pushing past the monolingual classroom. Jugando N Play was born.