About Theatre Link
TheatreLink is a project of the Education Department of Manhattan Theatre Club, a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theatre located in New York City. TheatreLink uses computer technology and the Internet to enable students in geographically remote locations to study and create theatre together.

The two-phase TheatreLink process encompasses a full semester. In phase one, each participating class studies a play produced by MTC, views a video clip of a key excerpt, then writes an original scene modeled on the excerpt. In phase two, each class sends its scene to a partner school, which produces it. Each class is thus the author of one scene and the producer of another.

During the production phase students learn about and are assigned theatre jobs (actor, stage manager, designer, etc.). The production process requires regular intersite communication as producers confer with playwrights about production issues via e-mail as well as the electronic bulletin boards and chat rooms on the TheatreLink Web site. Students can transmit photographs, design sketches, and sound clips by using the site's image and RealAudio uploading capabilities. As a culmination, the scenes are videotaped, viewed by all three sites, and discussed on-line together. The process is guided by MTC teaching artists, who confer and collaborate with classroom teachers and communicate with the students through the site.