GARDINER – Johnson Hall’s eighth annual Teen-Elementary School Shows program is hiring teens interested in theater and art for creative, paid positions. Teens will help write, direct and produce plays in local schools, with elementary students as the actors.

The 2008 theme is “TESS Goes Green,” emphasizing nature and the environment. Needed are five theater directors and three art directors who are enthusiastic, skilled with elementary students, committed, reliable and have their own transportation or can arrange it.

The TESS program operates from January to early May at three or four schools in two-week sessions, three days a week. Teens can contact Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center Executive Director Judy Lloyd for an application at 582-7144, [email protected], download the application from www.johnsonhall.org, or go in person to 280 Water St. Interviews will take place during December.

Johnson Hall’s teen directors will work with professional Theater Director Kathleen Nation in early January to write five scripts. Scripts are based on literature chosen by the teens and directors.

The plays will then be introduced to elementary school kids who have signed up for TESS, a free two-week after-school program. Theater teens, working with small groups of students and supervised by Nation, will be directors of their short plays.

Art teens, supervised by professional Art Director Yana Suponitskaya, will work with the “back-stage crew” of younger students to design and create the sets, costumes and props. The program at each school will culminate in two theater productions, one presented during the school day to all the students at that school, and another in the evening to parents and families.

TESS is financially supported this year by the Helen and George Ladd Charitable Corp. For more information, contact Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center.