Sleepy, Grumpy, Bashful, Dopey, Doc and ... Stinky?

The kids theater director says adapting plays helps kids 'find their niche.'
By SARAH POULTON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- "When I grow up, I want to be a famous piano player, and an actress, and a singer," said 8-year-old Ali Metz during her final day at the Youngstown Playhouse Youth Theatre summer workshop.
Ali, of Greenville, Pa., was excited to be at the playhouse all this week. She was a pupil in the "Snow White and Seven Dwarfs -- The Musical" class for grades one to three, and was chosen to play the part of the wicked witch.
"It's really fun to do all this stuff," Ali said Friday. "You learn how to warm yourself up and how to act. You just have a really great time when you do it. I feel really cool because I get to have water dumped on my head."
Patricia Fagan, youth theater director, planned a variety of summer classes and events for children in grades one to 12, which take place sporadically through out the summer.
All weeklong classes wrap up with a work-sharing session, which is open to family and friends and showcases the individual accomplishments of the children.
"Each day you're here, you're building something, and each day is just as important as the last," Fagan said.
Most classes are one and a half hours long, and they begin with a warm-up activity, Fagan said. The activity is based on that day's lesson plan, so it gets the actors in the right mood and makes them focus.
The approach to "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs -- the Musical" was unique in that the children playing the dwarfs got to choose their own dwarf names, such as Rose, Stinky and Cinderella, Fagan said. They also sang songs with familiar tunes to make it more care-free and less stressful.
The class was team-taught by Gary Shackleford and Erin Richardson, both students at Youngstown State University.
"They are performing an updated version of the story," Fagan said. "The plot was improvised, which is great for this age group because of their reading skills."
Actors and writers
While Snow White was downstairs getting poisoned by laughing bubble gum, children in grades four to eight were upstairs writing a unique episode of Disney's "High School Musical," based on the characters from the movie.
Sara Klimenko was the instructor, and she used improvisation techniques to teach the class. In this class, the kids not only learned performing skills, but also how to write, Fagan said.
Josh Butcher, 11, of Mineral Ridge, is no stranger to the playhouse, having appeared in the December 2005 production of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."
Josh said he enjoyed his week at the Playhouse and learned a lot of skills.
"I've met a lot of friends," Josh said. "I was excited to learn how to project and how to make improv[isation]."
With the overwhelming number of children registered for the "High School Musical" class, Fagan had to create an additional class during this session: "Sometimes you think that something's going to fly and it doesn't, and sometimes the opposite happens," Fagan said.
Another program was offered this week called "Silents Please" which introduced pupils in grades five to eight to the slapstick world of the silent screen, Fagan said. The class viewed film clips and then filmed their own silent movie.
Their dreams are hers
Fagan said that she wants the children who participate in the Children's Theatre to work hard and accomplish their dreams.
Fagan has already reached her dream; she gets to present works of literature and make them accessible to children. She used to be an actress, but she doesn't miss that part of theater because her joy comes from watching the kids turn scripts into miracles.
"The kids choose what they want to learn," Fagan said. "Whether it's backstage or onstage, they find their niche. I just want them to walk out of this building feeling a lot better about themselves than when they walked in."
XThe next series of summer classes will begin July 10. For further information and registration, call Fagan at (330) 788-8739.
spoulton@vindy.com