TOWNSHEND — The Leland & Gray Players' Summer Performing Arts Exploration 2014 (SPAE) presents a culminating performance of “The Phantom Tollbooth” on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 8 and 9, in L&G's Dutton Gymnasium.
Now in its seventh summer, SPAE offers workshops in music, design, dance, lighting, sound, and puppetry. The program is directed by L&G alumni Karlie Kauffeld, Abby Wicker, and Emily Fuller.
Managed by L&G Players' Director Ann Landenberger, SPAE's staff include alumni Patrick Hauer and Nicole Winot, and L&G students Tino Benson, Jesse Cannella, Kenny Cashman, Sage Hall, Nathaniel van Osdol, Nastia Stevens, Rachael Turner, and Rebekah Winot.
Workshop leaders include camp staff as well as L&G Music Director Ron Kelley; Bread and Puppet Theater puppeteer Cate Kelley; Cassidy Anderson; Sarah Dickson; and Governor's Institute of Vermont teacher Marcel Freda.
Kauffeld, Fuller, and Wicker adapted the show from Norton Juster's 1961 adventure novel and modern fairy tale of the same name. Jules Feiffer illustrated the work, which is widely considered a classic of children's literature.
According to Kauffeld, a music educator in Grand Isle, the SPAE program investigates why we make art - “Why we paint or sing or dance or write or act.” The answer, Kauffeld said, differs for everyone:
“At this year's SPAE, we have investigated why it is that we make art collectively and individually.”
The performance incorporates skills in voice, design, lighting, music, sound, movement, and production, which were introduced in the program.
Wicker adds that although the show is the reward, “the process of working on it offers the richest learning.”
Participants include past SPAE-ers Maggie Adams, Julia Assogba-Slowik, Jessop Burrow, Christian Cannella, Alice Coyne, Vinnie Ferrizzi, Ellie Longo, Fairen Stark, Veronica Stevens, Sam Thibault, Andrew Tolbert, and Nicolas Tolbert.
They are joined by new participants Peter Broussard, Dea Burrow, Madison Chase, Sydney Chase, Trey Crego, Avarie Fitzpatrick, Izzy Jarvis-Stores, James Jarvis-Stores, Isabel McCarthy, Kristen Munson, Sylvia Stark, Hope Thibault, Callie Wicker, and Deven Wicker.