Photo of Kathie DiStefano's interactive 'Seagull Mama' Performance at Enoch Pratt Library in a previous year

Operation Trash Tour Baltimore – Fall 2023

education, trash

Rotterdam-based, American-born theatre artist and educator Kathie diStefano will visit Maryland October 17 – 27, 2023 to share her environmental program ‘Operation Trash’ with area schools. Ms. Kathie uses creative arts to teach students, young and old, to throw trash away where it belongs and how important recycling is for our future. Ms. Kathie has taught drama and theater arts in Dutch public schools for many years, pioneering the concept of using performance arts to enhance required curriculum studies.

During her October visit to Maryland, she will be performing ‘Seagull Mamma,’ an interactive show for children in kindergarten through second grade about how our current trash behavior affects our environment. The show also serves as a comical ”introduction-to-theater” for young kids.

She will also be offering an assembly program ‘Operation Trash’ for middle and high school students. Ms. Kathie’s Operation Trash program is an entertaining assembly with facts and figures about how much trash we produce, why it’s a problem, and the need to increase our recycling strategies for a sustainable future.

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Photo of Kathie DiStefano's interactive 'Seagull Mama' Performance at Enoch Pratt Library in a previous year

Workshops for kids about trash — available in Baltimore/Maryland in Fall 2022

arts, education, trash

Theatre artist & educator Kathie diStefano, leader of Rotterdam’s Avalanche Arts, designs and coordinates creative educational activities for kids in Baltimore & Rotterdam to make them aware of trash pollution and how they can help solve it. Kathie diStefano visits Baltimore every year to hold interactive workshops and performances for kids about trash, recycling, and environmental stewardship.

From late October to early November 2022, diStefano is visiting Baltimore from Rotterdam, and we invite schools, community centers, and other venues in Maryland to host a performance by her.  Contact Kathie diStefano if you are interested in hosting a performance or meeting with her in fall 2022, or when she returns to Baltimore in spring 2023.

Offerings include:

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Community trash cleanup event with students from Bay Brook Elementary / Middle School during the 2022 Baltimore-Rotterdam Operation Trash exchange organized by Kathie diStefano.

Baltimore-Rotterdam virtual exchange program 2022: Operation Trash / Operatie Afval

arts, education, trash

An international cultural exchange project linking American & Dutch students — centered around the themes of waste and recycling.

Trash serves as the theme for a cross-cultural Sister City virtual exchange between schools in Baltimore (USA) and Rotterdam (the Netherlands) organized and designed by theatre artists and educator Kathie diStefano from Avalanche Arts, a Rotterdam-based nonprofit. Students research trash topics and recycling strategies and make presentations to share with their counterparts overseas. They are inspired to reduce litter and increase recycling in their communities while learning about each other’s cultures. There have been several exchanges between Baltimore and Rotterdam over the years.

The 2022 edition of the exchange kicked off in February 2022 with Bay Brook Middle School in Baltimore, Maryland (USA) and the bilingual Wolfert Lansing school in Lansingerland, a suburb of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, a sister city of Baltimore.

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Planned Baltimore-Rotterdam virtual exchange program 2022: Operation Trash / Operatie Afval

education, trash

A social cultural program linking American & Dutch students

Students in Baltimore and Rotterdam doing community cleanupsTrash serves as the theme for a cross-cultural Sister City virtual exchange between schools in Baltimore (USA) and Rotterdam (the Netherlands). Students research trash topics and recycling strategies and make presentations to share with their counterparts overseas. They are inspired to reduce litter and increase recycling in their communities while learning about each other’s cultures. Several editions of the exchange program have been held over the past years between schools in the Baltimore and Rotterdam regions.

The Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC) is planning an edition of this exchange program during the 2022 spring semester for Baltimore and Rotterdam area schools. The program is designed for middle school students, grades 7 or 8, referred to as ‘1st and 2nd year classes’ in Dutch high schools. This edition of the exchange takes place February to April, 2022. More info about the 2022 edition of the exchange.

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Seagull Mamma Performance at Pratt Library Nov 6, 2019

arts, education, trash

Seagull Mamma: A Performance Piece about Trash and Recycling by Kathie diStefano

About this event

Seagull Mama — A Performance Piece about Trash and Recycling

Performed by theatre artist & educator Kathie diStefano from Rotterdam’s Avalanche Arts.

This interactive show takes young audience members on a journey through the eyes of a seagull mamma who mistakes trash for fish while hunting for food for her young. How do our waterways get so polluted with plastic trash? The term ‘plastic soup’ is introduced; lakes, rivers, and seas that have so much plastic trash that no fish can live there.

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Performances about trash available from Young Audiences

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Seagull Mamma: A Performance Piece about Trash and Recycling by Kathie diStefanoKathie diStefano from Rotterdam’s Avalanche Arts (Stichting Lawine) is now part of the artist roster at Young Audiences Arts for Learning, Maryland!

Maryland public schools can sign up on the Young Audiences website to schedule the “Seagull Mama” performance this semester or in the future, for kids in kindergarten through grade 2. Young Audiences can provide subsidies to reduce the cost of the performance.

This interactive show takes young audience members on a journey through the eyes of a seagull mamma who mistakes trash for fish while hunting for food for her young. How do our waterways get so polluted with plastic trash? The term ‘plastic soup’ is introduced; lakes, rivers, and seas that have so much plastic trash that no fish can live there. This presentation also uses physical theatre techniques to provide comic relief. Learning through laughter is Ms. Kathie’s favorite way of introducing theatre to young audience members while sharing important social messages. In the show finale, Ms. Kathie teaches the audience a Dutch song from the country she immigrated to 35 years ago.

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