Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Youth Theater help...

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MartyW
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Joined: 2/02/04
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Topic: Youth Theater help...
Posted: 3/23/06 at 8:33am

Are there posts from the past, or suggestions from anyone today on how to add a youth theater type program to our playhouse? I have seen, and my first thoughts tend toward a day camp in the summer, culminating in a production.

Any other ideas? Experinces that worked?

Like everyone these days, we are trying to get folks involved and keep them in the theater, and we figure we should get involved with growing them young.

Any help or ideas appreciated..

Marty W

"Till next we trod the boards.."

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Theatrestation
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Posted: 3/28/06 at 6:13am

If you haven't already I would schedule a show that involves adults and youth as part of your mainstage season. Make it a high profile show like Oliver or Music Man. Make sure you advertise your auditions for Adults and young people. See what that brings you in the way of youth. After that I would schedule a special youth production based somewhat on the turn out for the mixed cast show you did. You can go from there adding classes and integrating the youth production into your schedule as a regular event.

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MartyW
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Posted: 3/28/06 at 7:52am

Yes we have done the standards... Many times... We acutally have a Youth Theater organization in town. It started with our theater about 30 years ago. The problem is, that element grew to the point that it moved on into its own entity about 10 years ago. One might imagine that when we do the shows that require kids that we would draw from that pool. Unfortunatly, thats not the case. Either they are too involved in the youth theater activities, or they perform in our other two theater venues in town. One being the University program and the other being a once a year extravaganza, musical company. What we need to get back to is developing our own youth base in our theater.. What that probably entails, and thus the post, is to start up a new youth program and enjoy the benifits while its small and growing... We have more than enough kids in the community who get squeezed out of the other programs due to cost and class size..

Marty W

"Till next we trod the boards.."

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k8tt
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Posted: 3/28/06 at 8:04am

I think you should go with your theatre day camp idea. If our CT had it's own building we would do that. Our small town also has a Youth Theatre but they only do one production a year and don't meet during the summer. We get lots of teens from there. We try to do at least one show a year with lots of children in it, and a workshop that involves children. Our Board is also organizing acting workshops to take to the middle and high school drama departments.

Most of the children we have in our productions are relatives of our members. But some do come to auditions after hearing about it from friends. 'Word of mouth' is the best way to get them to attend.

Other Comm. Theatres within driving distance have dedicated summer drama camps to draw kids in. One place has a fabulous one-week Musical Theatre Camp for teens. Good luck!

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Wishbone
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Posted: 3/29/06 at 3:59pm

The youth theater that I act at does a theater camp during the summer. It is always very successful. I think that would be a good way to get children and teens to act at your theater.

Wishbone

Once upon a time I was a shy young thing
Could barely walk and talk so much as dance and sing
But let me hit that stage I wanna take my bow
Cause Momma I'm a big girl now - "Hairspray"

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TxAltCountry
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Joined: 3/31/06
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Posted: 3/31/06 at 7:36am

We've just started planning for our 3rd year of summer camp, and I've worked on it every year, running the whole shebang myself last year, so I'll give you as much info as I can on it. Be forewarned, this is very long.

Here's our general rundown, although it's varied a bit each year.

It's a two week camp in June, 4 hours each afternoon. Doesn't sound like much time, but you can get a lot done in 40 hours. We have kids entering 1st grade to entering 9th grade. It's good to have that first year of school behind them. We typically have about 60 kids.

The first year and this upcoming one, we split them into 3 age groups, a separate 15-20 minute show each, culminating in a "grand finale" showcase on the last evening of camp.

Unfortunately, last year, we simply didn't have a 3rd director, so we had only two smaller groups, and did one big show, a one act version of Cinderella. The older group were the main characters and tech crew, the little ones the mice. It was adorable, I must say.

What we learned from last year was that the two groups were much more manageable for the space we have to work in. At our theater, we do thankfully also own the building next door, where we do all of our set/prop work, store everything, etc. But comparing last year's space to the first year, 2 groups seems much better. So this year since we have our 3 directors, the two younger groups will do the regular afternoon session, and the jr high kids will do a 3 hr evening session, shorter since they don't need snack and play/down time. So, we'll see how that goes. Even though we're in our third year of camp, we're still fine tuning what will eventually be the "normal" system for us. (BTW, I get to direct the 4th-6th graders this year, I'm very excited, great ages)

Now for the fun stuff...money talk. While we have the support of our theatre, that doesn't include full monetary support. So we do charge a tuition, $25 for kids of season patrons, $35 for all others. (Season patrons also get to start signing up a week early, as do camp alumni, as it's on a first-come, first-serve basis.) We also have sponsors, who for at least hundred dollars get their name on the camp t-shirts. This all covers our supply costs fine, as well as a few scholarships. Luckily, we don't have to pay utilities.

We start promoting camp at the beginning of the year in playbills, with a small tear-out to they can get on the mailing list for more information for when registration begins, as well as for volunteers. Around now, in March, we being our planning, and begin registration at the end of April, which coincidentally

coincides with our final show of the year, so we get a lot of plugs in there. Then we begin regular advertising like we would do for any other show. We close registration in the middle of May.

Ok, what else...volunteers are your most important asset, of course. We prefer to have about 1 adult for every 5 kids, more for the little bitty kids if we can get them. High school kids are great for this, and our schools here have volunteer fairs in the spring, so that works well.

Unfortunately, no matter how great a camp is, it doesn't necessarily mean it will draw a lot of kids into your regular season shows. We always manage to hook a few new ones each year, but for the most part, if they're not already one of our "theater brats"

, we won't see them until the next summer. But the funny thing is, those kids that we don't see all year, start having their parents ask in February when registration starts, because they loved camp so much.

I don't know why it works out that way. I figure we'll wrangle them in sometime.

So, that enough detail?

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Author	Message
MartyW Celebrity Joined: 2/02/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 555	Topic: Youth Theater help... Posted: 3/23/06 at 8:33am
	Are there posts from the past, or suggestions from anyone today on how to add a youth theater type program to our playhouse? I have seen, and my first thoughts tend toward a day camp in the summer, culminating in a production. Any other ideas? Experinces that worked? Like everyone these days, we are trying to get folks involved and keep them in the theater, and we figure we should get involved with growing them young. Any help or ideas appreciated..
	Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.."

	IP Logged

Theatrestation Star Joined: 11/10/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 65	Posted: 3/28/06 at 6:13am
	If you haven't already I would schedule a show that involves adults and youth as part of your mainstage season. Make it a high profile show like Oliver or Music Man. Make sure you advertise your auditions for Adults and young people. See what that brings you in the way of youth. After that I would schedule a special youth production based somewhat on the turn out for the mixed cast show you did. You can go from there adding classes and integrating the youth production into your schedule as a regular event.
	IP Logged

MartyW Celebrity Joined: 2/02/04 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 555	Posted: 3/28/06 at 7:52am
	Yes we have done the standards... Many times... We acutally have a Youth Theater organization in town. It started with our theater about 30 years ago. The problem is, that element grew to the point that it moved on into its own entity about 10 years ago. One might imagine that when we do the shows that require kids that we would draw from that pool. Unfortunatly, thats not the case. Either they are too involved in the youth theater activities, or they perform in our other two theater venues in town. One being the University program and the other being a once a year extravaganza, musical company. What we need to get back to is developing our own youth base in our theater.. What that probably entails, and thus the post, is to start up a new youth program and enjoy the benifits while its small and growing... We have more than enough kids in the community who get squeezed out of the other programs due to cost and class size..
	Marty W "Till next we trod the boards.."
	IP Logged

k8tt Star Joined: 4/05/05 Location: Canada Online Status: Offline Posts: 73	Posted: 3/28/06 at 8:04am
	I think you should go with your theatre day camp idea. If our CT had it's own building we would do that. Our small town also has a Youth Theatre but they only do one production a year and don't meet during the summer. We get lots of teens from there. We try to do at least one show a year with lots of children in it, and a workshop that involves children. Our Board is also organizing acting workshops to take to the middle and high school drama departments. Most of the children we have in our productions are relatives of our members. But some do come to auditions after hearing about it from friends. 'Word of mouth' is the best way to get them to attend. Other Comm. Theatres within driving distance have dedicated summer drama camps to draw kids in. One place has a fabulous one-week Musical Theatre Camp for teens. Good luck!
	IP Logged

Wishbone Player Joined: 8/05/05 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 22	Posted: 3/29/06 at 3:59pm
	The youth theater that I act at does a theater camp during the summer. It is always very successful. I think that would be a good way to get children and teens to act at your theater. Wishbone
	Once upon a time I was a shy young thing Could barely walk and talk so much as dance and sing But let me hit that stage I wanna take my bow Cause Momma I'm a big girl now - "Hairspray"
	IP Logged

TxAltCountry Walk-On Joined: 3/31/06 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 0	Posted: 3/31/06 at 7:36am
	We've just started planning for our 3rd year of summer camp, and I've worked on it every year, running the whole shebang myself last year, so I'll give you as much info as I can on it. Be forewarned, this is very long. Here's our general rundown, although it's varied a bit each year. It's a two week camp in June, 4 hours each afternoon. Doesn't sound like much time, but you can get a lot done in 40 hours. We have kids entering 1st grade to entering 9th grade. It's good to have that first year of school behind them. We typically have about 60 kids. The first year and this upcoming one, we split them into 3 age groups, a separate 15-20 minute show each, culminating in a "grand finale" showcase on the last evening of camp. Unfortunately, last year, we simply didn't have a 3rd director, so we had only two smaller groups, and did one big show, a one act version of Cinderella. The older group were the main characters and tech crew, the little ones the mice. It was adorable, I must say. What we learned from last year was that the two groups were much more manageable for the space we have to work in. At our theater, we do thankfully also own the building next door, where we do all of our set/prop work, store everything, etc. But comparing last year's space to the first year, 2 groups seems much better. So this year since we have our 3 directors, the two younger groups will do the regular afternoon session, and the jr high kids will do a 3 hr evening session, shorter since they don't need snack and play/down time. So, we'll see how that goes. Even though we're in our third year of camp, we're still fine tuning what will eventually be the "normal" system for us. (BTW, I get to direct the 4th-6th graders this year, I'm very excited, great ages) Now for the fun stuff...money talk. While we have the support of our theatre, that doesn't include full monetary support. So we do charge a tuition, $25 for kids of season patrons, $35 for all others. (Season patrons also get to start signing up a week early, as do camp alumni, as it's on a first-come, first-serve basis.) We also have sponsors, who for at least hundred dollars get their name on the camp t-shirts. This all covers our supply costs fine, as well as a few scholarships. Luckily, we don't have to pay utilities. We start promoting camp at the beginning of the year in playbills, with a small tear-out to they can get on the mailing list for more information for when registration begins, as well as for volunteers. Around now, in March, we being our planning, and begin registration at the end of April, which coincidentally coincides with our final show of the year, so we get a lot of plugs in there. Then we begin regular advertising like we would do for any other show. We close registration in the middle of May. Ok, what else...volunteers are your most important asset, of course. We prefer to have about 1 adult for every 5 kids, more for the little bitty kids if we can get them. High school kids are great for this, and our schools here have volunteer fairs in the spring, so that works well. Unfortunately, no matter how great a camp is, it doesn't necessarily mean it will draw a lot of kids into your regular season shows. We always manage to hook a few new ones each year, but for the most part, if they're not already one of our "theater brats" , we won't see them until the next summer. But the funny thing is, those kids that we don't see all year, start having their parents ask in February when registration starts, because they loved camp so much. I don't know why it works out that way. I figure we'll wrangle them in sometime. So, that enough detail?
	IP Logged

Topic: Youth Theater help...( Topic Closed)