Welcome to Peak Backstage!
- Ms. A
- Jul 19
- 4 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Table of Contents:
🎭 Welcome to Peak Backstage
Your home for simple, joyful, student-led, story-driven, culturally grounded drama resources.
If you’re an after-school educator, teaching artist, OST leader, or parent who wants to help kids create, imagine, and belong Peak Backstage is for you.
Here, you’ll find resources, encouragement, and a community (the Peak Backstage Crew) that helps you thrive, not just survive.
🌟 Who We Serve
Peak Backstage supports:
✔ after-school professionals
✔ teaching artists
✔ OST program leaders
✔ classroom teachers who integrate drama
✔ parents raising creative kids
✔ homeschool families
✔ community arts educators
If your world is loud, flexible, unpredictable, joyful, and student-centered — you belong here.
🎬 Why Peak Backstage Exists
I started teaching drama in an after-school program back in 2013. There was no curriculum. No materials. No stage. No blueprint.
I was a working actress with years of theatre experience but no formal training in teaching, no idea how to adapt what I knew for an OST setting, and no guide to help me build a drama program that reflected my students and my community.
I thought no problem. I’ll just look something up. Surely, I can find resources online. Right?
Instead, I found bits and pieces of rigid curricula that didn’t fit my students. I found plays that assumed I had a budget, a stage and a lighting board (I didn’t), and lesson plans written for classrooms that looked nothing like the one I walked into each day.
I needed something flexible. Something culturally rooted in our kids, our spaces, our stories.
So, I started building it myself.
Not all at once. Just one day a time.
I created exactly what I needed:
✨ Lesson plans that worked in flexible, high-energy environments
✨ Culturally Relevant scenes and stories that reflected the kids in front of me
✨ Strategies for teaching drama without a stage, a budget, or a formal arts background
And now, over a decade later, Peak Backstage is the collection of everything I created and learned along the way. It’s the resource I was looking for back then, but couldn’t find.
The result? A powerful toolkit for OST educators, teaching artists, and parents who want their children to grow through the arts. Peak Backstage is your toolkit.
🌟 Meet Your Guide
Hi, I’m Jessica, Miss Apple to my students.
I’m the founder, CEO and community arts educator of Peak Theatre Arts and the brains behind Peak Backstage. For over 20 years, I’ve worn many hats: actress, writer, producer, director, teaching artist, after-school leader, camp director, and my favorite community arts educator.
I know what it’s like to create magic with no budget, no stage, and no blueprint. I also know how deeply the arts can transform kids when we put their voices, cultures, and stories at the center.
That’s why I built Peak Backstage: to make theatre accessible, culturally grounded, and easy to implement anywhere.
🎉 What Is the Peak Backstage Crew™?
The Peak Backstage Crew™ is our growing community of educators, parents, teaching artists, and creative leaders who believe:
Kids deserve spaces where their ideas matter, their voices lead, and their stories take center stage.
When you join the Peak Backstage Crew, you'll receive our monthly newsletter: Peak Backstage packed with:
free drama resources, strategies and tools
news and updates about community programs and workshops
support from growing community of people who “get it”
Are you in?
Get started by receiving Superheroes Loading: A Culturally Grounded Drama Activity, for Grades 2nd-8th, that centers belonging, storytelling and culture.
You will get one main lesson + three extension activities you can easily turn into a four-week mini-unit. Perfect for after-school programs, homeschool co-ops, and community spaces.
Each activity is:
✔ student-led
✔ culturally grounded
✔ easy to implement
✔ designed for high-energy OST groups
What Can You Expect Inside Peak Backstage
When you subscribe to Peak Backstage you'll receive:
⭐ Spotlight
A spark of inspiration a short story, reflection, or insight that fuels your mission and keeps you moving forward, even on the days when the work feels heavy.
🎭 Drama Toolbox
One quick, no-prep activity or strategy you can use right away to boost engagement, focus and creativity in any group.
🌟 Take Your Bow
A moment for you. Share your the behind-the-scenes wins, lessons, and breakthroughs so we can celebrate you!
📬 Peak Updates
A quick look at what’s coming next: new blog posts, resources, activities, camps, and programs.
JOIN THE PEAK BACKSTAGE CREW TODAY!
Peak Backstage Disclaimer
The content shared on Peak Backstage is for informational and educational purposes only. While I draw from my experience as a teaching artist, parent, and arts educator, nothing here should be considered professional legal, medical, psychological, or financial advice. Every child, classroom, and community is different please use your own judgment and consult appropriate professionals before applying any of the ideas or strategies discussed here. By using this site, you accept that you are responsible for any outcomes that result from your choices based on the information provided. I do my best to share what’s worked for me and the communities I serve but as with all things in teaching and parenting, there’s no one-size-fits-all. Thank you for all you do!
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