Wildwood students learn about performing arts from the professionals

Written by Lauren Suit Friday, January 11, 2013 01:00 am

WILDWOOD – In March, the curtain is set to go up on a performance of Wildwood middle school students with the help of the Cape May-based East Lynne Theater Company.

“My guess is that 75 percent of the students had never seen a professional theater production,” said Gayle Stahlhuth, the East Lynne Theater Company’s artistic director. “It shows how far the students have come. They started out having very little theater experience and now they are working toward putting on a production.”

East Lynne is a nonprofit theater company that has five main stage productions yearly in Cape May and several touring shows. Stahlhuth said the company got involved in after-school program for Wildwood students after she was approached by Josepha Penrose, supervisor of curriculum and the instruction for Wildwood public schools.

The district applied for a federally funded 21st Century Learning Centers grant and chose visual and performing arts as its theme. Penrose said that she thought the East Lynne Theater Company would be a good fit for the program after she saw the work they did with Glenwood Avenue Elementary School in an after-school program that ended in 2011.

Stahlhuth said that the students in the after-school program work on every part of a theater production.

“The kids are learning about play writing, acting and production,” she said.

Stahlhuth said the class started with an introduction to theater, something many of the students were not familiar with.

“Very few, maybe only 5 percent of them, had ever seen a theater production,” she said. “And if they had been exposed to the arts, normally it was a musical. So as a result, there was a little bit of awkwardness for them in the beginning.”

Stahlhuth said the 40 students that signed up for the theater course started with the basics.

“They even learned theater etiquette, how to act in a theater and watch a professional production,” she said.

The students saw the company’s production of “Sherlock Holmes and The Norwood Builder" and "Louisa May Alcott's Christmas," which was a one-woman play performed by Stahlhuth.

“It was an eye opener for them,” Stahlhuth said. “No matter how you explain theater to anyone of any age, they really have to see experience it to understand it.”

During the hours that the students are in the program they teach acting exercises, voice work and improvisation. Stahlhuth said she tapped artist-in-resident Sally Bingham and Grace Wright to help with the two-day a week commitment. Other artists may be brought in to help out with theater production, she added.

Since October the students have been working on the basics and now it’s time to start working for a larger goal, like a performance, Stahlhuth said.

“We’re creating a storybook theater,” she said. “The students are going to put on a production of fables brought to life.”

While no definite date has been set yet, Stahlhuth said that scheduling the show for sometime in March would give the students enough time to rehearse. Props and sets, she added, would easy to come by either with the help of the school community or the theater’s own collection.

“I could probably outfit them all from the closet at East Lynne,” she said with a laugh.

“It is exciting for me to see their progress,” Stahlhuth said. “And I know they are excited to work on something like this.”