Academic Access
Through the Academic Access program, Paragon offers groups of students and their teachers free admission and study guides to a Paragon performance with the option of a mediated talk back that encourages dialogue between students, cast members and designers following the performance. Paragon's study guides offer insightful context for the production being presented, with the aim of helping students understand the play's origins and the significance of its subject matter and themes. Much as the director of each Paragon production first has to answer the question of "why should we care about this play?" Paragon's study guides serve as tools to help students to answer that question for themselves. The goal of the Academic Access program is to integrate theatre and the analytical thinking it inspires into the educational environment, and ensure that the arts are provided to area schools in spite of budget cuts that have crippled the ability of local school districts to offer students arts programs.
