CURTAIN CALL: Bucks County's Theatre Arts Center

Bucks County's Theatre Arts Center is not just a camp where kids get the opportunity to work off their excess energy. For 25 years, working professionals have been teaching children ages 4 to 18 the finer points of dramatic performance and producing shows on par with any professional company in the area.

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CURTAIN CALL: Bucks County's Theatre Arts Center

POSTED: Wednesday, July 27, 2011, 11:00 AM

Each week, Peter Chawaga breezes past those big-name theater companies to turn a spotlight on the city's indie stages.

Bucks County’s Theatre Arts Center is not just a camp where kids get the opportunity to work off their excess energy. For 25 years, working professionals have been teaching children ages 4 to 18 the finer points of dramatic performance and producing shows on par with any professional company in the area. Their specialties range from classical and musical theater to jazz, hip-hop and vocal performance. I spoke with Theatre Arts Center’s founder, Kristine Lewis, and she told me that kids involved in the program usually go on to do amazing things. “I’ve had kids that have gone on to Broadway, film and television. We’ve had a boy who’s now the leading boy in Mary Poppins on Broadway, a girl who’s now in Sister Act on Broadway and a student that has their own TV series.”

Currently, Theatre Arts Center is performing Disney’s Alice in Wonderland at the Bristol Riverside Theatre and, although their actors are all students, they take performances seriously. The kids have been auditioning and working all year to prepare for this production based on the classic Disney movie (not the Johnny Depp version) and Kirsten says that the Riverside Theatre knows what they can do. “We’re the only school that’s allowed to perform there, we’ve been doing shows for them for the last 10 years.” Of course, the Theatre Arts Center is about more than just creating great live performances. As Kristine puts it, “the kids get to learn how to speak well, how to interview well and how to focus on a project and finish it. Negativity walks in the door, and creativity walks out. We try the best we can.”

Coming up next, they will be premiering their own version of Fame, followed by Frog and Toad and then a musical review. Visit their website to find out when their upcoming classes start and to purchase show tickets.

(peter.chawaga@citypaper.net)

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