TOWNSHEND — The Leland & Gray Players are offering another Summer Performing Arts Exploration (SPAE) for young people entering grades 5-8. The program opens with a family potluck on Sunday, July 27, and runs Monday through Friday, July 28 to Aug. 8, with culminating performances at 7 p.m. on Aug. 8 and at 4 p.m. on Aug. 9.
Days include theater games, production work and workshops in acting, music, scene design, movement and dance, lighting, costumes and prop making.
A final show at the end of two weeks will incorporate all that was learned. The overarching questions posed throughout: Why do we make art? Why do we paint or sing or dance or write or act?
“The answer is different for everyone,” explains SPAE artistic director Karlie Kauffeld, '09, a music teacher in northern Vermont. “We are going to investigate why it is that we make art, collectively and individually.”
This year, students will bring to life Norton Juster's “The Phantom Tollbooth.”
“As always with SPAE,” explains managing director Ann Landenberger, “the show is the tool to teach performance and design skills. It is the reward, but really it is the process of creating the show that offers the richest learning opportunities.”
Throughout the offering, local artists will lead workshops, thereby exposing participants to those who've pursued and excelled in the arts they love.
Nearly 100 young people have participated in SPAE over the past five years performing in ensemble-created renditions of “Peter Pan,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Coraline,” “Robin Hood,” and “James and the Giant Peach.”
Many students have gone on to flourish in productions at Leland & Gray and beyond. One SPAE alumnus was in “Fiddler on the Roof” at Weston Playhouse last summer; another has performed with Main Street Arts and other area companies.
Other staff include Emily Fuller, '08, an elementary school teacher, and Leland & Gray Players' assistant producer Abby Wicker, '02.
Counselors-in-training include SPAE alumni Rachael Turner, Nathaniel van Osdal, Jesse Cannella, and Tino Benson - all former CITs - joined by SPAE alumni Sage Hall, Rebekah Winot, Nastia Stevens, and Kenny Cashman.
Patrick Hauer and Nicole Winot, both graduating in June, are continuing their long involvement with SPAE in leadership capacities.