Staging Journeys overarching goal in youth theater is to bring young people of various backgrounds and ages together to share their stories, their messages, and their talents on the stage, creating original works with children for their community.
Theater is joy. It is empowerment, expression, and voice. Young people have such important things to say! Giving them the platform of theater ensures that we will listen – as we should.
Children have a natural way of owning the stage because they are masters at being real while they’re also well-practiced in the art of pretending. They really know how to play.
We focus on original theater rather than existing plays because it allows us to use the stage as a vehicle for connection and creation.
Our productions are created by children and adults in teamwork together through a workshop process. That process may involve improvisation, reading/writing poetry, scene-work, discussion, movement games, reading/watching plays, listening to music, singing, dancing, and more.
Because children are heavily involved in the making of our productions, they are exposed to both the onstage and offstage roles in theater. When possible, young people participate in directing, musical accompaniment, costuming, make-up, scenery, staging, and lighting.
We seek out local teaching artists who are creators in their art form to work with our young casts.
Through our theater and musical theater programs, we offer:
- Basic acting and staging
- Improvisation
- Games
- Script-writing
- Poetry-writing and reciting
- Monologue reading
- Physical comedy
- Comedic acting
- Vocal techniques
- Harmony, choral, solo singing
- Dance, various styles
- Choreography
- Live accompaniment
