$4,450 raised
·70 donations
Hilltown Youth Theatre
Donation protected
THE HILLTOWN YOUTH THEATRE is a year-round after-school and summer performing arts program. Its mission is to build supportive, creative communities and to put on great shows. The program began as collaboration between the Academy of Charlemont, Mohawk Middle and High School and the Heath Elementary School, three dynamic learning communities dedicated to growing the performing arts and enriching children’s lives through music, art and theater. Now in its seventh year, the program has three main components: The Hilltown Youth Theatre Summer Workshop, the Recovery Theatre and a four month Performing Arts Residency at The Heath School—a small, rural community-based elementary underserved by the arts. We are trying to raise an additional $3275 to reach our goal for this year and launch our programs and projects in 2017!
A picture is worth a thousand words! This brief youtube video provides more background on our programs and captures the spirit of the work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vqG2q1baFA&feature=youtu.be
THE HILLTOWN YOUTH THEATRE
SUMMER WORKSOHOP
The Hilltown Youth Theatre Summer Workshop is the flagship of our youth programming. The Workshop provides much needed, high quality, intensive arts experiences for young people in one of Massachusetts’ most rural areas.
For the past seven years, through artistic excellence, exemplary work with young people and a commitment to building a supportive community for youth, the Workshop has helped young people develop personally and artistically through professional caliber, community-centered theater.
The program brings together student-performers from all over the region to train and collaborate on theatrical productions at a high level. It is part of an effort to use theater to create a larger sense of community that transcends buildings and school campuses and instills in young people a sense of place and appreciation of Hilltown life and passion for the arts.
Performances take place outdoors on the bucolic five-acre campus at the Academy at Charlemont—a public-spirited private college preparatory school—where the audience and actors journey together from scene to scene.
The Hilltown Youth Theatre Summer Workshop has become a hub of creative activity in our community performing plays from Shakespeare to Tolkien and hosting resident artists from Ashfield’s world renowned Double Edge Theatre to Northampton’s award winning Serious Play! Ensemble to Smith College Theater and Afro-Am professor Andrea Hairston's Chrysalis Theatre.
We have can-do spirits to dream big and engage our broader community in the arts. Part of our job is to make the Hilltown Youth Theatre Summer Workshop a dynamic and exciting space for visiting artists to spend time and exchange voices with our talented students and faculty.
Building our trolls with guest artist Larry Sampson
Highlights of our 2016 Season included:
—Our sixth outdoor, traveling spectacle, "The Little White Bird" an original adaption of J.M. Barre's classic Peter Pan. 70 performers, 11 dancers, 8 musicians, 20 guest artists, 4 techies and 700 plus theatergoers enjoyed this unique, innovative, inclusive workshop.
—We hired nine (9) student-faculty representing the program’s gradual transition from being staff-driven to student led. This talented creative team wrote and directed the play, and assisted with makeup, costume and set design. (Two apprenticed with trapeze artist Arlie Hart in the spring and then staffed the flying rig during our summer programs.) Each student-artist earned $1,800 over five weeks ($12 per hour) towards his or her college education.
—Seminars with guest artists JOE DELUDE, decorated makeup designer for the Tony Award-winning hit musical “Wicked" and mask maker JOE OSHEROFF from the U.S. national tour of War Horse.
—Increased LGBTQ and POC participation in all of our summer programs.
—55 Hilltown Youth attended internationally renowned Double Edge Theatre’s performance of Cada Luna Azul (Once A Blue Moon) and participated in a talkback with the company.
—Received s $5000 Mission Express Grant from the Community Foundation of Western Mass to purchase stilts, lighting and replace aging aerial fabrics, and raised an additional $24,000 in grants and private donations including generous awards from the Charles H. Hall Foundation, Northampton Arts Angels and Opioid Task Force of Franklin County. No family is turned away due to an ability to pay.
“The faculty was amazing. I improved my acting skills and found a sense of community. Not only is it a great acting experience but it’s wonderful to be so connected with the outdoors, which is an opportunity not many people of my generation have or use.”—Alegra (age 14, summer ’14, ’15, '16)
“You and the other gifted staff made this a safe place for my son to take great risks with life-affirming results.”—Chris Sarge (parent ’12, ’15)
“The thing the Workshop does best is bring the campers together. Last summer was my fifth year, and I saw my old friends and met new ones. Everyone from the workshop comes from a different background– despite this, everyone is tight-knit. Any divisions at the beginning of the workshop disappear very quickly. Which has led to some of my best friendships and hopefully will lead to more...I think the most important thing I’ve taken away from the camp has been a part of my personality. I’m not an actor, but I’ve had big roles in two of the productions. I’m not going to become a musician but I’ve led a lot of the music instruction. I’m not an acrobat but I’ve gone on the trapeze and stilts and silks. There’s never any pressure to try new things, but the option is always there and is always free of judgment. This is brought further by the staff and faculty who (both in and out of camp) are open to anything. This has encouraged me, someone who had typically stayed in their comfort zone, to branch out and be open to more not just in the workshop, but in my general life.” —Franklin (age 17, summers '12 - '16)
"Your work changes lives and gives the gift of theater to so many young people in our rural community. I look forward to the exciting work the troupe will create this summer!"—Amrita Ramanan (Former Associate Producer, Double Edge Theatre; Dramaturge, Oregon Shakespeare Festival)
"I think you do an amazing job of harnessing the creative energy in any person and turning it into something beautiful. I will take away that being bold is a good thing, and that putting yourself and your energy out into the world is often a good thing.” Lilly (age 16, summers '15 & '16)
"This workshop allows kids to be who they are, celebrating their unique style and strengths. You plan a day with a rhythm of intense work and fun play so kids are eager to keep coming back. There is an authentic exchange of mutual respect and trust between staff and kids. You bring in top quality artists to teach the workshop participants. You pull together an amazing, awesome show in less than 3 weeks- audiences leave thoroughly entertained and impressed by the first class production…As the last curtain call ended, excited chatter about next year’s production began...Our region is so very enriched by the great work you do with our kids.”—Linda Sarage, Director Recovery Project (grandparent parent summer '12, '15, '16)
"This was our first year participating. The Hilltown Youth Theatre Ensemble made us feel as if we’d been part of the community forever...I was impressed by how focused, creative, disciplined and risk-taking the students were...As an adolescent boy it isn’t easy to share with cohorts a love for theatre or performance. At the Hilltown Youth Theatre Ensemble my son found his tribe.”—Ted Resnicoff (parent '16)
"This is a truly innovative and amazing performing arts program and proud to say it is run by another Hampshire College alum and in the Hilltowns!”
—Ann Hackler (Director, Institute for Musical Arts)
“Youth led in an empowering, safe environment, great camaraderie, fun, fitness and ensemble building!”
— Stefan Topolski, MD (parent summer ’14 & ’15, '16)
THE RECOVERY THEATRE
Massachusetts is currently experiencing an epidemic of opiate addiction that is ravaging our communities and our youth. It is in the headlines on an almost daily basis. Task forces have been formed and prevention budgets bolstered. However, if we expect young people to “just say no” to a chemical high we must recognize the healing alternative: their own creativity. Theater is the real anti-drug program.
In 2015 we launched The Recovery Theatre, a new initiative within the Hilltown Youth Theatre. The Recovery Theatre is an strength based, holistic model creating change for area youth through theatre and the arts. Our goal is for participants and graduates to become advocates who continue utilizing the arts for their own growth and healing.
In summer 2016 we hosted our second pre-workshop five-day recovery intensive for young people struggling to overcome anxiety, addiction and depression. All ten participants opted to stay on for last summer’s outdoor, traveling spectacle The Little White Bird.
Writes Recovery Theatre co-founder Alyssa Wright,
"A thirteen year-old girl, just out of rehab for drug addiction and bulimia, told me that our training was the first time she got the chance to write about rehab, the first time she met other peers as young as her who were also addicts and the first time she had a chance to stand up and speak her truth in front of others. At the end of the week, she said she would have been more tempted to go back to using if she had not had those weeks in Charlemont, writing monologues, learning ensemble and flying on trapeze with us."
Said one parent: "The Recovery Theater was a godsend for helping our family support a young lady, newly living with us, who was struggling with a recent heroin exposure. I had no idea where to even start in helping her. The Recovery Intensive provided the perfect combination of both structure and adrenalin rush (a.k.a. trapeze) that kept her connected. We could not have navigated this summer without this program...Little did I know that it would also be a pivotal experience for my son, who I asked to attend as this young woman’s 'support person.' He struggles with severe anxiety. The week provided him with so many positive and meaningful experiences. Through drama and prose, he was able to find a voice for some of his fears. The balance between being on the edge of panic... yet strangely safe at the same time allowed him to sleep and laugh in ways we rarely see…Finally, both kids felt so accepted as human beings yet totally hearing that their addiction and anxiety levels weren’t ok. They heard the reality that those broken parts didn’t have to define them."
Hell yeah it was fun and it helped a lot...your organization was good becuase it wasn't good. I'm not saying it was bad but if the kids wanted to do something else first you went with it so it seemed like they were actually doing something...I'm going to take away that other people know what I'm going through and I know that if they can do it so can I. It also built a community of friends that I'm still In contact with. —Taz (age 17), 2016 Recovery Intensive
“Thank you all so very much for taking my daughter in. It brings me to tears. All she has ever wanted was to fit in and have friends. It’s been very hard to sit on the sidelines and see my child go through so much bullying. So thank you again for helping her. My daughter is having the time of her life! She is so happy!! I can't thank you enough for giving her this awesome experience.”—Beth (parent Recovery Intensive and summer workshop ’15. 16)
As a parent of a 14 year-old daughter who could not attend eighth grade due to her panic disorder, her experience in the Recovery Intensive was just what she needed after a brutal year of isolation, teasing and therapy. She told me that for the first time she felt ‘ok' to share how her anxiety had interrupted her life. She never felt like the outsider. She felt accepted just as she was. She started to gain her self esteem back and felt empowered. The world became a less scary place to move around in again. My daughter was back!—Sandi McCulloch (parent, 2016 Recovery Intensive & Summer Workshop)
“My daughter came out of her shell in the Recovery Intensive. She spoke her mind, contributed in the group setting and discovered new ways for safe self expression. I watched her self hatred and low self esteem rise to the sky. Our communication at home improved drastically! It was amazing to watch her grow significantly in such a small amount of time...I feel like she put a lot of her heart and soul into this experience. I liked seeing the self-loathing decrease and she's not as embarrassed to be her goofy self. I can't say enough good about her time in both workshops. She's also able to better channel her anxiety, sings more, draws more, engages more...She says she found a passion in the trapeze."—Danielle (parent Recovery Intensive and summer workshop ’16)
"As a therapist working with adolescents I was so thrilled to be able to refer my client to the recovery intensive! She had missed an entire year of school due to anxiety, but your program allowed her to play to her strengths as a gymnast and dancer and was a huge confidence builder. She absolutely loved it, and being part of the production. She told her mom and me that it was the first thing that had made her happy in a long time. This family could not have afforded to pay for a program such as this, so it was amazing you had the grant funding to allow her to participate. I hope you can get similar funding again because I am looking forward to referring numerous other kids next summer. I have the posters up in my office and I am already planting the seed with families for 2017!"—Alex Osterman, LICSW
“What you are doing is so important and you do it with such passion, compassion, humor and grace. My client is thriving in your program!”—Jackie Humphreys, LICSW
"One of the girls wrote a monologue about being tormented and bullied at school. At the end of the week, she stood in the center of a fifty person circle of her peers and sang a solo at the top of her lungs. Internal transformation has a beautiful external result. This, along with many other things, the theater teaches me over and over again."—Alyssa Wright (Co-founder, Recovery Theatre)
JAMES, JUNE AND THE GIANT PEACH
Youth Residency Programs
From October to April, the Hilltown Youth Theatre makes its home in Heath MA. The Heath Elementary School is nestled among old orchards and pastureland at the outer reaches of the Pioneer Valley. The school is small, like the town, enrolling just over 50 children PK-6th grades. With two thirds of its students qualifying for free and reduced lunch, the school provides access to arts and music education that many families can’t otherwise reach. The rural setting, while idyllic, limits access to affordable arts education.
Over the last ten years, the school’s drama program has unexpectedly evolved into a wonderful local tradition among its students, their families and the broader community—with each of the annual performances garnering standing room only crowds from Heath and the hilltowns beyond. Early on, audiences saw new life brought to creative adaptations of the classic Charlotte’s Web, Wilma Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and The Witches of Oz with performances at the school and local senior center becoming an essential bridge between the school’s youth and elders. More recent sojourns took us to a fictional village in a land 2000 miles away in the Fiddlers of Anatevka and then on an adventure much closer to home, albeit 240 years ago, when we performed 1776! We’ve visited so many other amazing places. Some real, some fantastical, all magical!
Students embrace every element of the dramatic process from set building and design to music and choreography to acting and playwriting.
They work on the score in themusic room, props in the art room and train together in PE culminating in an all-school drama production.
Cast of "1776!"
Our approach is multi- disciplinary incorporating puppets, shadow screens, mask making, movement, physical training and work on spools and other large apparatus. Seven aerial fabrics (circus silks) hang from the rafters of our gymnasium and all-school space.
Heath’s drama program enriches the lives of students while fulfilling an important need for community-centered theater in our rural hill towns. Our youngest thespian is five and our oldest twelve. Last year, eighteen middle and high school aged student-volunteers and alums of the Summer Workshop we affectionately call “Arts Angels,” joined us at different times on the set to assist with the production.
Arts Angels Robbie and Cassie on the set of Narnia
This year's play is James, June and the Giant Peach, our own adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's story. The play goes up next month and we need $2,500 to pay for materials, a new sound system and lighting.
Meet some of our talented and dedicated faculty!
Guest artist Larry Sampson, a professional production designer with myriad film credits to his name, helped students design and build our fantastic troll and dragon puppets for The Hobbit and the Manticore (half lion, half scorpion) for King Arthur. This is Larry’s fourth season with the Company. Other returning faculty include current Mohawk and former Double Edge Theatre music director Scott Halligan (5th season).
Scott!
Set Design Designer Laura Iveson (4th season)
Makeup and Henna Artist Kelly Flaherty (7th season)
Choreographer, Keene State Dance Professor, Cynthia McLaughlin (7th season)
Double Edge Theatre Core Ensemble Member and Guest Artist Hannah Jarrell (7th season)
Program director, Mohawk High School art teacher and Double Edge Theatre resident artist, Rachel Silverman (3rd season)
Costume Designer Carin Burnes (7th season)
Guest musicians Jerry and Sylvia Johnson (3rd season)
Aerial Trapeze Artist, Arlie Hart (3rd season)
Aerial Fabric & Trapeze Artist Cariel Klein (7th season)
Technical Director, Robbie Buoniconti (4th season)
Aerial Fabric Instructor, Emma Lonergan (7th season)
Aerial Fabrics Instructor, Enid Gallaghar (7th season)
Stage Manager, Ashley Roberston (4th season)
Alyssa!
Recovery Theatre co-founder Alyssa Wright (3rd season) leads our girls’ theater and leadership training and co-facilitates the Recovery Intensives. As a member of Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble, Alyssa contributed to the ensemble winning an International Award for Artistic Courage at JoakimInterfest in Belgrade Serbia.
New to this year’s faculty are JoeOsheroff, a professional mask maker whose stage credits include the Broadway production of War Horse and local rocker and Academy at Charlemont music instructor Matt Kim.
Jonathan training with the Knights of the Roundtable
Founder and artistic director Jonathan Diamond Ph.D. is a psychotherpaist specializing in addictions and the clinical needs of adolescents and has published extensively on both topics. Writes one area High School principal, "Jonathan has an established track record of making things happen. His productions engage entire communities in shared creative pursuits with dramatic results. "
While our entire faculty tries to pass onto our students our love for these art forms, what we’re most passionate about is using theater to build supportive, creative communities. At the heart of what we do is teaching children and young adults ensemble work and how to be part of a team.
More Photographs of Trainings and Performances!
Photography by Doug Mason, Emma Lonergan, Enid Gallaghar, James Smith, Lorena Loubsky, Michelle Staryos and Oliver Diamond!
A picture is worth a thousand words! This brief youtube video provides more background on our programs and captures the spirit of the work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vqG2q1baFA&feature=youtu.be
THE HILLTOWN YOUTH THEATRE
SUMMER WORKSOHOP
The Hilltown Youth Theatre Summer Workshop is the flagship of our youth programming. The Workshop provides much needed, high quality, intensive arts experiences for young people in one of Massachusetts’ most rural areas.
For the past seven years, through artistic excellence, exemplary work with young people and a commitment to building a supportive community for youth, the Workshop has helped young people develop personally and artistically through professional caliber, community-centered theater.
The program brings together student-performers from all over the region to train and collaborate on theatrical productions at a high level. It is part of an effort to use theater to create a larger sense of community that transcends buildings and school campuses and instills in young people a sense of place and appreciation of Hilltown life and passion for the arts.
Performances take place outdoors on the bucolic five-acre campus at the Academy at Charlemont—a public-spirited private college preparatory school—where the audience and actors journey together from scene to scene.
The Hilltown Youth Theatre Summer Workshop has become a hub of creative activity in our community performing plays from Shakespeare to Tolkien and hosting resident artists from Ashfield’s world renowned Double Edge Theatre to Northampton’s award winning Serious Play! Ensemble to Smith College Theater and Afro-Am professor Andrea Hairston's Chrysalis Theatre.
We have can-do spirits to dream big and engage our broader community in the arts. Part of our job is to make the Hilltown Youth Theatre Summer Workshop a dynamic and exciting space for visiting artists to spend time and exchange voices with our talented students and faculty.
Building our trolls with guest artist Larry SampsonHighlights of our 2016 Season included:
—Our sixth outdoor, traveling spectacle, "The Little White Bird" an original adaption of J.M. Barre's classic Peter Pan. 70 performers, 11 dancers, 8 musicians, 20 guest artists, 4 techies and 700 plus theatergoers enjoyed this unique, innovative, inclusive workshop.
—We hired nine (9) student-faculty representing the program’s gradual transition from being staff-driven to student led. This talented creative team wrote and directed the play, and assisted with makeup, costume and set design. (Two apprenticed with trapeze artist Arlie Hart in the spring and then staffed the flying rig during our summer programs.) Each student-artist earned $1,800 over five weeks ($12 per hour) towards his or her college education.
—Seminars with guest artists JOE DELUDE, decorated makeup designer for the Tony Award-winning hit musical “Wicked" and mask maker JOE OSHEROFF from the U.S. national tour of War Horse.
—Increased LGBTQ and POC participation in all of our summer programs.
—55 Hilltown Youth attended internationally renowned Double Edge Theatre’s performance of Cada Luna Azul (Once A Blue Moon) and participated in a talkback with the company.
—Received s $5000 Mission Express Grant from the Community Foundation of Western Mass to purchase stilts, lighting and replace aging aerial fabrics, and raised an additional $24,000 in grants and private donations including generous awards from the Charles H. Hall Foundation, Northampton Arts Angels and Opioid Task Force of Franklin County. No family is turned away due to an ability to pay.
“The faculty was amazing. I improved my acting skills and found a sense of community. Not only is it a great acting experience but it’s wonderful to be so connected with the outdoors, which is an opportunity not many people of my generation have or use.”—Alegra (age 14, summer ’14, ’15, '16)
“You and the other gifted staff made this a safe place for my son to take great risks with life-affirming results.”—Chris Sarge (parent ’12, ’15)
“The thing the Workshop does best is bring the campers together. Last summer was my fifth year, and I saw my old friends and met new ones. Everyone from the workshop comes from a different background– despite this, everyone is tight-knit. Any divisions at the beginning of the workshop disappear very quickly. Which has led to some of my best friendships and hopefully will lead to more...I think the most important thing I’ve taken away from the camp has been a part of my personality. I’m not an actor, but I’ve had big roles in two of the productions. I’m not going to become a musician but I’ve led a lot of the music instruction. I’m not an acrobat but I’ve gone on the trapeze and stilts and silks. There’s never any pressure to try new things, but the option is always there and is always free of judgment. This is brought further by the staff and faculty who (both in and out of camp) are open to anything. This has encouraged me, someone who had typically stayed in their comfort zone, to branch out and be open to more not just in the workshop, but in my general life.” —Franklin (age 17, summers '12 - '16)
"Your work changes lives and gives the gift of theater to so many young people in our rural community. I look forward to the exciting work the troupe will create this summer!"—Amrita Ramanan (Former Associate Producer, Double Edge Theatre; Dramaturge, Oregon Shakespeare Festival)
"I think you do an amazing job of harnessing the creative energy in any person and turning it into something beautiful. I will take away that being bold is a good thing, and that putting yourself and your energy out into the world is often a good thing.” Lilly (age 16, summers '15 & '16)
"This workshop allows kids to be who they are, celebrating their unique style and strengths. You plan a day with a rhythm of intense work and fun play so kids are eager to keep coming back. There is an authentic exchange of mutual respect and trust between staff and kids. You bring in top quality artists to teach the workshop participants. You pull together an amazing, awesome show in less than 3 weeks- audiences leave thoroughly entertained and impressed by the first class production…As the last curtain call ended, excited chatter about next year’s production began...Our region is so very enriched by the great work you do with our kids.”—Linda Sarage, Director Recovery Project (grandparent parent summer '12, '15, '16)
"This was our first year participating. The Hilltown Youth Theatre Ensemble made us feel as if we’d been part of the community forever...I was impressed by how focused, creative, disciplined and risk-taking the students were...As an adolescent boy it isn’t easy to share with cohorts a love for theatre or performance. At the Hilltown Youth Theatre Ensemble my son found his tribe.”—Ted Resnicoff (parent '16)
"This is a truly innovative and amazing performing arts program and proud to say it is run by another Hampshire College alum and in the Hilltowns!”
—Ann Hackler (Director, Institute for Musical Arts)
“Youth led in an empowering, safe environment, great camaraderie, fun, fitness and ensemble building!”
— Stefan Topolski, MD (parent summer ’14 & ’15, '16)
THE RECOVERY THEATRE
Massachusetts is currently experiencing an epidemic of opiate addiction that is ravaging our communities and our youth. It is in the headlines on an almost daily basis. Task forces have been formed and prevention budgets bolstered. However, if we expect young people to “just say no” to a chemical high we must recognize the healing alternative: their own creativity. Theater is the real anti-drug program.
In 2015 we launched The Recovery Theatre, a new initiative within the Hilltown Youth Theatre. The Recovery Theatre is an strength based, holistic model creating change for area youth through theatre and the arts. Our goal is for participants and graduates to become advocates who continue utilizing the arts for their own growth and healing.
In summer 2016 we hosted our second pre-workshop five-day recovery intensive for young people struggling to overcome anxiety, addiction and depression. All ten participants opted to stay on for last summer’s outdoor, traveling spectacle The Little White Bird.
Writes Recovery Theatre co-founder Alyssa Wright,
"A thirteen year-old girl, just out of rehab for drug addiction and bulimia, told me that our training was the first time she got the chance to write about rehab, the first time she met other peers as young as her who were also addicts and the first time she had a chance to stand up and speak her truth in front of others. At the end of the week, she said she would have been more tempted to go back to using if she had not had those weeks in Charlemont, writing monologues, learning ensemble and flying on trapeze with us."
Said one parent: "The Recovery Theater was a godsend for helping our family support a young lady, newly living with us, who was struggling with a recent heroin exposure. I had no idea where to even start in helping her. The Recovery Intensive provided the perfect combination of both structure and adrenalin rush (a.k.a. trapeze) that kept her connected. We could not have navigated this summer without this program...Little did I know that it would also be a pivotal experience for my son, who I asked to attend as this young woman’s 'support person.' He struggles with severe anxiety. The week provided him with so many positive and meaningful experiences. Through drama and prose, he was able to find a voice for some of his fears. The balance between being on the edge of panic... yet strangely safe at the same time allowed him to sleep and laugh in ways we rarely see…Finally, both kids felt so accepted as human beings yet totally hearing that their addiction and anxiety levels weren’t ok. They heard the reality that those broken parts didn’t have to define them."
Hell yeah it was fun and it helped a lot...your organization was good becuase it wasn't good. I'm not saying it was bad but if the kids wanted to do something else first you went with it so it seemed like they were actually doing something...I'm going to take away that other people know what I'm going through and I know that if they can do it so can I. It also built a community of friends that I'm still In contact with. —Taz (age 17), 2016 Recovery Intensive
“Thank you all so very much for taking my daughter in. It brings me to tears. All she has ever wanted was to fit in and have friends. It’s been very hard to sit on the sidelines and see my child go through so much bullying. So thank you again for helping her. My daughter is having the time of her life! She is so happy!! I can't thank you enough for giving her this awesome experience.”—Beth (parent Recovery Intensive and summer workshop ’15. 16)
As a parent of a 14 year-old daughter who could not attend eighth grade due to her panic disorder, her experience in the Recovery Intensive was just what she needed after a brutal year of isolation, teasing and therapy. She told me that for the first time she felt ‘ok' to share how her anxiety had interrupted her life. She never felt like the outsider. She felt accepted just as she was. She started to gain her self esteem back and felt empowered. The world became a less scary place to move around in again. My daughter was back!—Sandi McCulloch (parent, 2016 Recovery Intensive & Summer Workshop)
“My daughter came out of her shell in the Recovery Intensive. She spoke her mind, contributed in the group setting and discovered new ways for safe self expression. I watched her self hatred and low self esteem rise to the sky. Our communication at home improved drastically! It was amazing to watch her grow significantly in such a small amount of time...I feel like she put a lot of her heart and soul into this experience. I liked seeing the self-loathing decrease and she's not as embarrassed to be her goofy self. I can't say enough good about her time in both workshops. She's also able to better channel her anxiety, sings more, draws more, engages more...She says she found a passion in the trapeze."—Danielle (parent Recovery Intensive and summer workshop ’16)
"As a therapist working with adolescents I was so thrilled to be able to refer my client to the recovery intensive! She had missed an entire year of school due to anxiety, but your program allowed her to play to her strengths as a gymnast and dancer and was a huge confidence builder. She absolutely loved it, and being part of the production. She told her mom and me that it was the first thing that had made her happy in a long time. This family could not have afforded to pay for a program such as this, so it was amazing you had the grant funding to allow her to participate. I hope you can get similar funding again because I am looking forward to referring numerous other kids next summer. I have the posters up in my office and I am already planting the seed with families for 2017!"—Alex Osterman, LICSW
“What you are doing is so important and you do it with such passion, compassion, humor and grace. My client is thriving in your program!”—Jackie Humphreys, LICSW
"One of the girls wrote a monologue about being tormented and bullied at school. At the end of the week, she stood in the center of a fifty person circle of her peers and sang a solo at the top of her lungs. Internal transformation has a beautiful external result. This, along with many other things, the theater teaches me over and over again."—Alyssa Wright (Co-founder, Recovery Theatre)
JAMES, JUNE AND THE GIANT PEACH
Youth Residency Programs
From October to April, the Hilltown Youth Theatre makes its home in Heath MA. The Heath Elementary School is nestled among old orchards and pastureland at the outer reaches of the Pioneer Valley. The school is small, like the town, enrolling just over 50 children PK-6th grades. With two thirds of its students qualifying for free and reduced lunch, the school provides access to arts and music education that many families can’t otherwise reach. The rural setting, while idyllic, limits access to affordable arts education.
Over the last ten years, the school’s drama program has unexpectedly evolved into a wonderful local tradition among its students, their families and the broader community—with each of the annual performances garnering standing room only crowds from Heath and the hilltowns beyond. Early on, audiences saw new life brought to creative adaptations of the classic Charlotte’s Web, Wilma Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and The Witches of Oz with performances at the school and local senior center becoming an essential bridge between the school’s youth and elders. More recent sojourns took us to a fictional village in a land 2000 miles away in the Fiddlers of Anatevka and then on an adventure much closer to home, albeit 240 years ago, when we performed 1776! We’ve visited so many other amazing places. Some real, some fantastical, all magical!
Students embrace every element of the dramatic process from set building and design to music and choreography to acting and playwriting.
They work on the score in themusic room, props in the art room and train together in PE culminating in an all-school drama production.
Cast of "1776!"Our approach is multi- disciplinary incorporating puppets, shadow screens, mask making, movement, physical training and work on spools and other large apparatus. Seven aerial fabrics (circus silks) hang from the rafters of our gymnasium and all-school space.
Heath’s drama program enriches the lives of students while fulfilling an important need for community-centered theater in our rural hill towns. Our youngest thespian is five and our oldest twelve. Last year, eighteen middle and high school aged student-volunteers and alums of the Summer Workshop we affectionately call “Arts Angels,” joined us at different times on the set to assist with the production.
Arts Angels Robbie and Cassie on the set of NarniaThis year's play is James, June and the Giant Peach, our own adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic children's story. The play goes up next month and we need $2,500 to pay for materials, a new sound system and lighting.
Meet some of our talented and dedicated faculty!
Guest artist Larry Sampson, a professional production designer with myriad film credits to his name, helped students design and build our fantastic troll and dragon puppets for The Hobbit and the Manticore (half lion, half scorpion) for King Arthur. This is Larry’s fourth season with the Company. Other returning faculty include current Mohawk and former Double Edge Theatre music director Scott Halligan (5th season).
Scott! Set Design Designer Laura Iveson (4th season) Makeup and Henna Artist Kelly Flaherty (7th season) Choreographer, Keene State Dance Professor, Cynthia McLaughlin (7th season)Double Edge Theatre Core Ensemble Member and Guest Artist Hannah Jarrell (7th season) Program director, Mohawk High School art teacher and Double Edge Theatre resident artist, Rachel Silverman (3rd season) Costume Designer Carin Burnes (7th season)Guest musicians Jerry and Sylvia Johnson (3rd season) Aerial Trapeze Artist, Arlie Hart (3rd season) Aerial Fabric & Trapeze Artist Cariel Klein (7th season) Technical Director, Robbie Buoniconti (4th season) Aerial Fabric Instructor, Emma Lonergan (7th season)Aerial Fabrics Instructor, Enid Gallaghar (7th season) Stage Manager, Ashley Roberston (4th season) Alyssa!Recovery Theatre co-founder Alyssa Wright (3rd season) leads our girls’ theater and leadership training and co-facilitates the Recovery Intensives. As a member of Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble, Alyssa contributed to the ensemble winning an International Award for Artistic Courage at JoakimInterfest in Belgrade Serbia.
New to this year’s faculty are JoeOsheroff, a professional mask maker whose stage credits include the Broadway production of War Horse and local rocker and Academy at Charlemont music instructor Matt Kim.
Jonathan training with the Knights of the Roundtable Founder and artistic director Jonathan Diamond Ph.D. is a psychotherpaist specializing in addictions and the clinical needs of adolescents and has published extensively on both topics. Writes one area High School principal, "Jonathan has an established track record of making things happen. His productions engage entire communities in shared creative pursuits with dramatic results. "
While our entire faculty tries to pass onto our students our love for these art forms, what we’re most passionate about is using theater to build supportive, creative communities. At the heart of what we do is teaching children and young adults ensemble work and how to be part of a team.
More Photographs of Trainings and Performances!
Photography by Doug Mason, Emma Lonergan, Enid Gallaghar, James Smith, Lorena Loubsky, Michelle Staryos and Oliver Diamond!Donations
Organizer
Jonathan Diamond
Organizer
Charlemont, MA