ORONO – Nine classes at six area high schools are busy this week and next working with visiting performing artists to create original drama and dance pieces they will perform for each other and for the public 9 a.m.-noon Monday, Nov. 4, at the University of Maine’s Class of 1944 Hall.

The public is welcome to attend.

The students’ work is part of Building Community Through the Arts, a regional program organized by the Maine Alliance for Arts Education, which fosters positive social relationships among students through guided group creation in drama and dance. Now in its fourth year, the program bas received a $30,000 Arts Learning Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as a $30,000 grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.

As the only recipient of a major NEA award this year among all the arts education alliances throughout the United States, the Maine program was given special mention this summer at the annual Building Community Through the Arts national conference.

Building Community Through the Arts allows

students to explore and communicate social issues in a safe and supportive environment, officials explained. The program provides an opportunity for those who may not have other experience in theater or dance to try out these two arts forms.

“In fact,” said Susan Potters, director of the MAAE program, “the program is deliberately targeted to academic classrooms, rather than to arts classes, in order to spread the wealth and give other students the experience of working creatively together. It also gives high school teachers the opportunity to see how drama and dance can be integrated into their curriculum.”

The sessions take place in classes whose teachers have volunteered be hosts to the sessions, including in the Bangor area, Emilie Manhart and Jodie Bower at Bangor High School, Seth Mitchell at Brewer High School, Amy Hart at Old Town High School, and Jennifer Townsend at John Bapst Memorial High School.

Later in the month a second group of students from high schools in northern and western Penobscot County will participate in the program and perform Nov. 21 at the Penobscot Theatre Company’s little theater on Union and Main streets, the Union Street Brick Church and the ballroom in the Bangor House.

The students will perform in the afternoon, and attend a Penobscot Theatre Company performance of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in the evening.

Sponsors of Building Community Through the Arts include the Bangor Daily News and the Phenix Inn.

For more information, call Susan Potters at 990-2805.