The Beginning of a Beautiful Thing

Learning, Dreaming, Building...Today marks the first day of six weeks of the THEARC's Summer Youth Program, sponsored by Capital One, William C. Smith and Co., and Verizon. About 15 teens, from different areas and backgrounds come together to put on a production of their own, and get to know the in's and out's of theater. I can tell these six weeks are going to be fun-filled, by the different personalities that I've seen today.

Mr. Johnny Sweet is the life of the party!!


Today the group "Learned" the dynamics of putting on a show, "Dreamed" about the aspects of the kind of show that we want to present, and in the upcoming weeks, the group will "Build" that dream.

During the learning process, we watched a previous production of "Do You Like Good Music," a musical discography of the days of Motown and the music of the late '60s and early '70s, and gathered ideas about costumes, make-up, lighting, and sound. After the viewing, the young producers of tomorrow broke into groups of their desired interests and brain-stormed about this years vision of "Do You Like Good Music", and took an extensive tour of THEARC.


After the day was over the group reflected about their future at THEARC and their masterpiece to-be.




Chris Page, one of the youth program members writes, "...I am enjoying myself. Being in the presence of new and interesting people for the first time is refreshing. What I learned today is that we are going to work hard and perform tedious tasks to ensure a successful and entertaining production. I look forward to all that I will experience in the next six weeks."

The program has already took effect on Ms. Dana Smith. She writes,

"What I want to get out of this program is to learn what I don't know and to expand what I do. My goal here is to teach others what I know and to find resources to help if I can't. Today I discovered different places of THEARC that I never knew existed. I was elated to see different parts of it. I expect that this program will teach me backstage work and also will teach me to be independent."

Today marks the beginning of a beautiful thing. Stay tuned to what tomorrow will bring. : )