CT State Troubadour Nekita Waller will be hosting
the Middletown Teen Talent Search on January 19!
Oddfellows
Playhouse Youth Theater in Middletown has announced its winter 2019 programs in
the arts for young people ages 6-20. Programs begin in early January and range
from classes in theater, music, and visual arts to mainstage theater and circus
productions.
Oddfellows has
been offering fun and challenging theater and circus experiences to central
Connecticut young people since 1975, and has consistently been recognized by
Connecticut Magazine as the State’s “Best Children’s Theater”.
This winter the
Playhouse will be offering young people of all ages opportunities to create,
train and perform. Programs for teenagers include the Middletown Teen Talent
Search, the Teen Repertory Company and Circophony Teen Circus.
The Middletown Teen Talent Search will be
held on Saturday, January 19 and is open to Middletown young people ages 12 –
19. The event will be hosted by Connecticut State Troubadour Nekita Waller and
the top act will win a cash prize of $500.
The Teen Repertory Company, the Playhouse’s
senior company for ages 14 -20, is developing an original, ensemble-created
performance piece with music and dance this winter and spring. This Is Important: An Ensemble Creation
Experience, offers five winter workshops in which students will develop
text, movement and music based on their own experiences of navigating
contemporary life as a teenager. The work will be developed into an original,
mainstage show which will have auditions in March and be performed in May.
Circophony Teen Circus, open to ages 12 – 19, is a collaboration
between ARTFARM and Oddfellows Playhouse and will be mounting a mainstage
production this winter called Circus
Botanicus. Auditions are January 8 & 9 and performances will be March
21-23. Circophony is open to all teens, regardless of circus experience, though
a background in gymnastics, dance, theater, parkour, improvisation or any
physical discipline may be helpful.
Middle School
students and home schoolers are served by the Junior Repertory Company (ages 12-14), which will be producing the
classic Italian comedy The Servant of Two
Masters. A feast of slapstick, disguises, mistaken identity, misguided
romance, rebellious teens and clueless parents, auditions are January 10 and
the show will hit the main stage March 14 – 16.
Ages 12 – 14 may
also join our weekly Improv Jam, held
on Saturday mornings starting January 19 and run by Carmine Lavieri.
Young
people ages 6 – 11 are
offered a host of classes in the after-school hours Monday through Thursday.
Classes for ages 6 – 8 include Stories
from the Middle East, Junior Circus, Creating Characters and Slapstick & Clowning. For ages 9 -11
there is Circus Arts, a visual arts
class called Beads, Baubles, Boxes and
Beans, Scene Study, and a Mini-production (which rehearses two afternoons
per week) called Fairytale Fantasy. All classes and the mini-production begin the
week of January 14.
Middletown Public School
students ages 6 – 14 can sign up for Oddbridge, an extended-day program in which students take the
bus directly from school to Oddfellows and participate in an hour of Arts
Programming before formal classes start at 4:30pm. Oddbridge is
designed to take you from the school bus to performing arts classes, while
preparing you for successful class and production experiences.
The winter program
at the Playhouse also features Le Petit Studio,
conceived and directed by Congolese theater artist Toto Kisaku. This unique
theater experience is for kids ages 8 – 14 and their families. The class will
be from 10 am to noon on Saturdays January 26th, February 9th
and February 23rd; students may sign up for one Saturday or all
three.
Oddfellows programs
are tuition based, but the Playhouse is committed to making these experiences
available to every young person, regardless of ability to pay. Please refer to
the website for financial aid information.
For details about
any of the above programs and more, including tuition and financial aid, or to
register, go to www.oddfellows.org
or contact Oddfellows at info@oddfellows.org
or call (860) 347-6143.
Oddfellows
Playhouse is located at 128 Washington Street in downtown Middletown. Oddfellows
Playhouse is Connecticut’s oldest and largest youth theater, founded in 1975
with the mission to promote the growth of young people – in skills, knowledge
and self-confidence – through the performing arts. Playhouse programs are made
possible due to generous support from the United Way of Middlesex County,
Middletown Commission on the Arts, Fund for Greater Hartford, Community
Foundation of Middlesex County, Liberty Bank Foundation, State of Connecticut
Judicial Branch, Middletown Youth Services Bureau, Connecticut Office of the
Arts, and the Stare Fund.
All kinds of opportunities in theater, circus, music and visual arts
for ages 6 - 20. Register at www.oddfellows.org today.
Share Day photo by Madeleine Sargent.
