Certified art therapist Nicole Porter Wilcox of Emerald Sketch, LLC, in Brooklyn, N.Y., will offer three sessions on storyboarding, Mondays, November 2, 16 and 30, at C.H. Booth Library, for Newtown residents ages 8-13. Each session is limited to ten people. Participants may sign up for one, two, or three of the sessions.

Storyboards allow the creator to tell a story through artistic mediums. Ms Willcox will guide participants in creating storyboards, using illustration, painting, or sculpting. Each young person will have the opportunity to share their story with the group, or not, as he or she prefers.

A specialist in early childhood, acute assessment, trauma treatment, family development, and community outreach, Ms Willcox will introduce creative techniques to build esteem and focus, and address any current concerns.

On Monday, December 14, Tony Award-winning actor Nick Cordero will join Ms Willcox for a two-hour puppet or mask-making session that will begin at 5:30. Participants will create a string marionette or a performance mask, and Mr Cordero will help each young person develop a character and add a voice. Time will be allowed for introduction and play theater with the character puppets or masks.

Participants in the puppet making session should plan to attend at least one storyboarding session.

Ms Willcox initiated art therapy service in Newtown immediately following 12/14. She served as director of child therapy for the Sandy Hook Healing Project, and later established Emerald Sketch, LLC, with an art therapy response team of clinicians, helping bridge the Newtown gap in trauma service, for 18 months.

From August 2013 and the summer of 2014, she provided support at The Resiliency Center of Newtown. She has facilitated art therapy at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia for Behavioral Analysis and Therapy Partners, and at the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center in Philadelphia.

Having worked with so many families in Newtown/Sandy Hook following 12/14, Ms Willcox is aware of the emotional challenges residents experience as the anniversary of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School draws near.

“This time of year, in Newtown, additional support is needed,” Ms Willcox said this week. “It’s so important to create pleasurable experiences around this time of year,” she said, such as the workshops on storyboarding and puppets. She is very excited to have Mr Cordero participate in the December 14 program, she said.

Mr Cordero starred as Cheech in Bullets Over Broadway, for which he received a 2014 Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nomination, and won both an Outer Critics Circle Award and Theater World Award for his performance. He has performed on Broadway and off-Broadway in numerous productions, as well as regional theater, television, and film.

Registration is required at www.chboothlibrary.org. For more information contact the C.H. Booth Children’s Department, 203-426-3851.