S3E9: Summer Theatre School: The Class Rundown!

Ensemble Members Amy Rene Byrne and Abigail Leffler unpack all the wonderful Summer Theatre School offerings this summer! From Film Acting to Gore Galore-- there's something for every kid ages 3+! 

Register for summer classes online at www.bte.org

Recorded and Edited by: Amy Rene Byrne
Original Music by: Aaron White

Transcripts of all Season 2 and 3 episodes are available on our Buzzsprout website.

Check out our current season: http://www.bte.org
Ensemble Driven. Professional Theatre. Arts Education. Rural Pennsylvania. For Everyone. With Everyone.

Transcript

Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble: Down Center
Summer Theatre School: The Class Rundown! 

Amy: [00:00:00] Welcome to Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center, a podcast where we learn, we play and we grow with our company, our people, our art, and our town-- front and down center. Hello, I'm resident artist Amy Rene by, and I'm here with my fellow Ensemble Member and Education Director, Abigail Leffler. 
Abby: Hello. 
Amy: And we are chatting about our upcoming Summer theatre School offerings. I do wanna make a quick disclaimer. We are recording this in between Little Prince performances on a two show day. So the washer and dryer are a going, so Abby, I'm sorry, it's a little bit noisy in here. 
Abby: I shall forgive you this once--
Amy: Just this once?
Abby: Just this once. You only have one chance. 
Amy: Oh man. I feel like the fact that I haven't used my one chance up in our years of friendship is, I know. Is actually pretty impressive. 
Abby: It's very impressive. Yes. 

Recording of Theatre School Class: it's like if this would be a book, the kids would just be going. Yeah, I feel where, where is this going? Yeah. I feel like if it [00:01:00] were a book, it would be like you ripped a bunch of pages out of a bunch of different books and kind of put 'em all together. Right? Yeah. Harrison, I feel like when you get like that story, I feel like the only way to like end it shortly is to like give one of those canned endings. Like they all woke up, but it was just a dream. Yeah. You know what the, the term for, for an ending like that is where there's like something that like magically resolves it all. I'll be super impressed if y'all know this.
Kimie, do you know what it is? I do. It's called a Deus Ex Machina, yeah, it is exactly what I was thinking of. So like when you have some sort of a, like fantastical ending, it's almost like a God comes down from the sky and makes everything right. 

Amy: Its a lot of me talking.[00:02:00] 
Abby: Have a ton of fun at BTE Theatre School classes where Amy doesn't shut up. 
Amy: Amy talks all the time. Oh my goodness. 
Abby: I'm the same way. 

Recording of Theatre School Class: lots of boops and beeps, its quite silly

Amy: oh, we were making a machine. Nice.
It sounds ridiculous.
Abby, can you say, is that an accurate glimpse into what it is like inside a classroom at BTE?? 
Abby: Oh my goodness, yes. The amount of silly, silly things that I do in my life as a professional theatre artist is both surprising and amazing. And that is a good glimpse into what it looks like in a Theatre School class. 
Amy: Oh goodness. So Summer theatre School, it's been a year since we talked about [00:03:00] that. 
Abby: Yes, it has been. 
Amy: What is Summer Theatre School for those who may not know? 
Abby: Summer Theatre School is an opportunity for anybody who is interested in theatre to come to us for, week long classes. where we offer different classes each week for different age groups, depending on the time of day. And you come and you enjoy the theatre education, and then you go home and you do your other summer activities and have fun that way, too.
Amy: Amazing. What kind of classes are we offering this summer? 
Abby: !We are offering some Film Acting classes, Acting Studio, where you will have an opportunity to hone your acting abilities. 
Ooh. And Improv where you're gonna have a ton of fun just playing around and having some Improv games. Play Crafters where we get to put on a play, short play, but full on play Musical Theatre-- explains itself-- and Reader's Theatre, which is a, a new one where we are going to be offering reading support [00:04:00] through theatre education. 
Amy: Oh, that sounds really exciting. Yeah. We're gonna talk more about that here in a second. 
Abby: That's great. And then we have Makeup Mayhem and Gore Galore our steadfast stage makeup camps.
Amy: Those all sound so fun. I'm trying to decide which one I wanna Ask about first. So, film Acting sounds pretty self-explanatory. Can you tell me a little bit about what you would learn in Film Acting and what ages can take this class? 
Abby: Sure. You're going to be able to learn how to perform for the screen or the camera. It is a very different bear from performing for a live theatre audience. So we're going to really hone in on the idea of like, camera work and not looking at the camera when we're performing.
Amy: Oh, that's hard. 
Abby: I know. It's so hard. Even the, the most. steadfast people wanna look at the camera, but, it's going to be a lot of that stuff, just the basic film acting things that you need to know before you get started with film acting. 
Amy: I bet many people don't realize that there's such a difference [00:05:00] between what it's like to act on stage and what it's like to act on camera.
Abby: I bet they don't. 
Amy: Yeah. 
Abby: And this is what that camp or class is going to show us. 
Amy: We're gonna be giving you the inside tricks of the trade. 
Abby: Tricks of the trade. I like that. 
Amy: Now will they get to see themselves on camera? How does that work? 
Abby: Yes. We're, we'll record things so that they can look back on what they did and we can discuss it and we can adjust it and try and do, uh, the most we can with that camera work individually and as groups. 
Amy: That's really exciting. Do you have like a whole film crew of minions in there helping you out? 
Abby: TBD. Maybe what will happen is if you're not on the camera lens, you'll be back behind helping record and figure that stuff out. 
Amy: You'll walk away from class knowing all of the ins and outs of how to put something on film.
Abby: Here's hoping. Yeah. 
Be Beep Bee Boo 
Be Beep Bee Boo. 
Amy: I'm gonna leave that in. The dryer has just sung us a song. 
Abby: It was very beautiful. 
Amy: It was a [00:06:00] little serenade. Mm-hmm. 
Abby: Be Beep Bee Boo. 
Amy: Be Beep Be Boo. Um, okay. So Film Acting, they can come, learn what it's like to be in front of a camera. 
Abby: Mm-hmm. 
Amy: Hopefully learn what it's like to be behind the camera. Now what age groups can take Film Acting? 
Abby: Ages nine to 12 year olds who will be in the morning class time, and then 13 to 18 year olds will be in the afternoon class time.
Amy: Awesome. I would so take advantage of that if I were a teenager. 
Abby: I know. 
Amy: Teenage me would've loved that. 
Abby: Teenagers of the Bloomsburg and surrounding areas we're looking at you. 
Amy: Come take a film acting class with us. Now Acting Studio, you said that's an opportunity for actors to really hone their craft.
What does that mean? 
Abby: Where we're going to be focusing with film acting on the camera work, we're going to be focusing more on the acting abilities and the ins and outs of what it takes to really look at a script and discover the characteristics of an, uh, character and committing to those [00:07:00] characteristics and how we can best, hone our craft as an actor.
So we're, we will worry less about theatre performance and just say, okay, what does it mean to act? And what is it like-- how can we better those abilities through character work scene study, stuff like that. 
Amy: So it sounds like this is like a process rather than a product class.
Abby: Yes. 
Amy: Like we're gonna really dig in on like the techniques and 
Abby: Yes. 
Amy: What it takes to end up with a good product. But the goal of the class isn't to have a, a finished product, it's to walk away with tools. 
Abby: Yes. Yeah, that's a great way to put it. We're gonna give them tools for future performances they might have.
Amy: Man, I would take that class too. 
Abby: Well, let's just take all the classes. 
Amy: Okay. I would love to go back to being a student sometimes. 
Abby: I know, right? 
Amy: Sometimes I find myself on stage and I'm like, man, do I know anything? 
Abby: No. The secret to life is that you don't know anything. Not just you. Amy Byrne, like everybody.
Amy: Abby's [00:08:00] scathing review of how little I know. Beautiful. Okay. Now, Improv. 
Abby: Improv will be a great class where you're going to learn the basics of what it means to perform in an Improv setting. So where in like Acting Studio, we might have scripts and we might have monologues and stuff like that. We'll pull from, we won't have those in the Improv class. We will be performing with just what pops out of our head and into our mouth and out to the audience, and it's a good way to learn about your instincts as an actor. And it's a good way to kind of release those expectations of perfection that happen when you're a performer. 
Amy: Yeah. Abby and I recorded an improv episode. 
Abby: Yes, we did. 
Amy: Because Abby runs BTE's Improv group. So if you're curious about Improv, I wanna know anymore about that. I say check out that episode if you haven't. It's a really great insight into what improv [00:09:00] is. I can't remember what we talked about. 'cause it was a while ago.
Abby: It was a while ago. 
Amy: I do know I I made you play an improv game. 
Abby: Yes, we did. 
Amy: And record it. 
Abby: Yes, we did. I do remember that as well. 
Amy: Now Play Crafters sounds like a huge deal. The other three camps we talked about are three hour camps. Is that right? 
Abby: Yes. And this one is different. It's an all day camp. So you'll be with me and another teacher from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, we'll have lunch together. You'll be sick of us, I promise. 
Amy: I could hang out with Abby Leffler all day every day. Oh. You know, so just take that as a personal testimony. 
Abby: I'm awesome. You can cut that out. 
Amy: I'll not. 
Abby: Okay, fine. Play Crafters is, like you said, it's a product based camp, like Film Acting. But what we will be doing is we'll be putting on a stage play, probably a 10 minute short stage play, and we'll learn what it takes to put on that stage play. Not just the rehearsals and the performance, but finding the costumes, the props, [00:10:00] the set pieces, all those things that it takes to put on a show we will learn about during this camp.
Amy: What are some examples of plays you've made in the past? 
Abby: Oh goodness. You're testing my memory. 
Amy: I'm so sorry. 
Abby: No, that's okay. The first one we ever did was we, we wrote the script in a script writing camp that we had previously to the Play Crafters camp, and it was about all about a murder mystery at a mall. And so we used that script from the script writing class.
Amy: Is the mall what died? 
Abby: How appropriate. Um, but in that Script Writing class, we wrote it and then we applied it to the Play Crafters camp and we put it on as a performance for that class. And then last year we did a play about zombies. 
Amy: Mm-hmm. 
Abby: And they were trying to eat students' brains and it was this one, we did not create. This one I found and was like, well, this is delightful. It was actually quite clever. And we put that one on last year. 
Amy: Very fun. What age group is Play Crafters for? 
Abby: [00:11:00] It is nine to 14 years of age. 
Amy: Nice. So those other three we talked about were available in groups of 9 to 12 and 13 to 18? 
Abby: Yes.
Amy: And this is 9 to 14 years old? 
Abby: Yes, it is. 
Amy: Now Musical Theatre-- sing dance? All of the above? 
Abby: We're gonna be doing all of the above. It is singing and dancing and acting all at the same time is super hard. So what we're going to be doing is we're going do is be spending time learning how to combine all those three in the best possible way while having the most fun possible.
Amy: Yes, I am personally a single threat. I can act and that is just about it. So I really should take a Musical Theatre class, really, really hone those skills. 
Abby: Well, you can take it with the five to eight year olds if you're a beginner. 
Amy: Perfect. Perfect. I am a beginner. 
Abby: I just have this picture of you, this 5 foot, 10 person-- 
Amy: With all the five year olds. 
Abby: With, with all the five year olds, 
Amy: and they're running circles around me. Yes. I'm like, which is my left? Which is my, right? So [00:12:00] that's exciting. 5 to 8 year olds and then 9 to 12 year olds?
Abby: Yes, we'll find some fun songs, whether they're from Disney musicals or from musicals that are on Broadway, we'll take those and we'll learn about the acting behind it, and then we'll learn a little dance for it and in addition to that, learn the song and sing it all at the same time. 
Amy: That's like patting your head and rubbing your belly to me. 
Abby: Which I can't do, but I can sing. I can, I know enough about dance to be dangerous. 
Amy: Yes. 
Abby: And I know enough about acting to be dangerous, we'll say. 
Amy: Beautiful. And are you teaching that with Aaron? 
Abby: I believe we are doing the morning session. 
Amy: Gotcha. 
Abby: And then, in the afternoon session will be me and someone else. 
Amy: Okay. Because I was gonna say, he can dance his way out of a paper bag I feel like. 
Abby: Yes, he can. 
Amy: Beautiful. Now this next one is new: Reader's Theatre. That's so exciting. Tell me about it. 
Abby: So this one will be taught by actually Aaron [00:13:00] White's wife, Nina White. 
Amy: You may have seen her on stage in various BTE shows in the past. 
Abby: She has been on the BTE stage in the past, but she is now a librarian in a, Williamsport. And she is really passionate about teaching how to read and how to read and be expressive about it and making reading as fun as possible. So we, well, not we, she. Came up with this idea of Readers' Theatre, where super young, budding performers who may not know how to read or are still learning how to read well, they'll take a story and they will learn the foundations of reading and performing at the same time.
Amy: And that's available for some young, young--
Abby: Itty bitties. 3 to 4 year olds are the morning class, and then 5 to 7 year olds will be for the afternoon class. 
Amy: Oh, that's so exciting. 
Abby: Yeah, I'm really excited about this one. We have not offered something like this before, [00:14:00] it's hard to come into theatre and maybe have difficulty reading because reading is a big part of theatre. 
Amy: Yeah. 
Abby: So the idea that we are offering this to kids who might still be learning or don't know how to read or struggle with reading the fact--
Amy: Who haven't found their confidence yet. 
Abby: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We offer this so that maybe the next time you take a workshop that's not reader based, you are able to be more confident coming into that class or camp. 
Amy: I love that. 'cause as a Director, sometimes I have young people come and audition for me. Mm-hmm. And I can tell that the hangup isn't their audition skills or their acting skills, it's that they're not confident in their reading skills.
Abby: Exactly. Yeah. 
Amy: And that can be a real barrier. So I love that there's an opportunity for them to come and gain some, some confidence, get a little gas in that tank. 
Abby: I'm excited. I think I'm going to learn a little bit from Nina during that camp, too. 
Amy: I'm you Will. Nina is a very, very smart lady. Aaron is across the room looking at us.
That is so exciting. I'm [00:15:00] very excited to hear about how Readers' Theatre goes. 
Abby: Yeah. I'll let you know when it, when it happens, but I'm sure it's going to be great. 
Amy: I wish Brahm would almost be three. Uh, I don't know if I'm quite ready to put him in a theatre school class.
Abby: I get that. I get that. That's okay. 
Amy: He would love it. 
Abby: Oh, and there's something important that you need to know if you're listening to this podcast, that the Reader's Theatre, we need the students who are coming into these classes to be potty trained. 
Amy: Okay. 
Abby: So that's important to be. 
Amy: That is, that would not barrier because Brahm is definitely not potty trained. Not at all. 
Abby: That's okay. Some people are at different stages of their life, but that is a stage that we need to have so that we can successfully run the camp and be able to teach in the time that we have allotted for those classes.
Amy: Because the class for the three to four year olds I'm seeing is an hour and a half long. 
Abby: Yes. you know, this is a toe dip in the pool. So we're, we're hedging our bets and we're keeping them a little bit abbreviated so that we can make sure that they have as much fun and it's not like too long for them. 
Amy: Yeah, I feel [00:16:00] like an hour and a half is a really good length for that age group. 'Cause then you've got like acclimation time, but then still enough time to get into something, but not so long that you're losing their attention. 
Abby: Exactly. 
Amy: And then your five to 7-year-old group is a two hour class?
Abby: Yes. Correct. 
Amy: All right. Let's talk about what I know from past experience is the all time favorites. These makeup classes. 
Abby: Stage Makeup, makeup Mayhem is the first one. And so that will be where you learn the special effects and what it takes to put on those special effects. So like a good example would be like if you wanted to learn how to make scales on your skin like you're a snake. Then we can teach you that. If you want to learn how to make your face into an animal face, we can teach you that, a bruise. Even as simple as a bruise or something like that. We can teach you that. What simple makeup items that you can get at any makeup store or like Rite Aid or whatever.
Amy: So you don't need special theatre makeup. 
Abby: You do not. We are going to use everyday makeup that you can find anywhere. [00:17:00] And create through those avenues.
Amy: Amazing. Now Gore. 
Abby: Gore is going to be a gross class. 
Amy: Are you going to cut up children? 
Abby: No. That's frowned upon. I've been told. 
Amy: Ugh 
Abby: I know. So what we're actually going to do is we're going to teach them all about like what it means to have stage blood, like the fake blood for, for stage, um, how to use that and how to use , latex and toilet paper, actually, surprisingly. And you make like gross wounds on your body and you stick 'em on your body and they're just, I'm just scratching my arm.
No one can see this right now, but I'm like scratching my arm like I have a gross wound on it. And using the blood and the makeup tools that we learn in Makeup mayhem, you can utilize in this class as well. 
Amy: Amazing. uh, I, I've both taught the class and seen pictures from classes where students have made some really wild-- 
Abby: Oh my gosh, some gnarly stuff too, like yeah. And I know it's fake, but I'm still like, Ugh. 
Yeah. 
Amy: Yeah. Ones where [00:18:00] they like did cuts all the way across like their face and then did like fake stitches to look like they had been sewn back together. One girl brought in fake teeth and did a whole face of like, like her face was like a giant mouth with like, oh my gosh, fake teeth everywhere. It was so creepy. 
Abby: That is so cool. 
Amy: I feel like sometimes these students come in with ideas that I would've never, ever thought of. Mm-hmm. I feel like, TikTok and YouTube and things like that have really opened up that kind of like makeup Gore world in a different way. 
Abby: Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. 
Amy: Than when I was a kid.
Abby: Yeah, for sure. And the creativity it takes behind that to be like, okay, I saw this thing. How am I going to create it? And they work on their own. Like we help them and we give them advice, but they're like creating this on their own, and it's truly remarkable. 
Amy: Yeah. I love the idea that they can bring in an idea and if they don't know how to do it, we can like help them figure it out.
Abby: Yeah. 
Amy: And break it down and be like, okay, this is a way that you can [00:19:00] do this with items you can find around your house. 
Abby: Mm-hmm. Exactly. 
Amy: Or for cheaply, we, we don't spend a lot of money on supplies. 
Abby: No, we do not. And that is the key, I think like. It. A lot of times when we create, we think that the hindrance might be money, but like, that's, that's what I love about these camps. We don't spend a lot of money, but the product there is is truly remarkable. 
Amy: I love that. I feel like that's, that's very much the heart of our classes. 
Abby: Yeah. 
Amy: Okay, so what ages can take these makeup classes? 
Abby: The makeup classes are for ages 12 and older, so preteens to 18 year olds are welcome to take this class. 
Amy: Amazing. So I can't, I'm too old.
Abby: You're too old. I'm sorry. 
Amy: That's okay. 
Abby: So you can teach it with me. 
Amy: I, I, I, I wait to put me on the spot. 
Oh. So we were just talking about how we don't spend a lot of money. So speaking of money, what are these classes gonna [00:20:00] cost? 
Abby: They range from anywhere between $50 to $200. And basically it depends on how long the camp runs. So for the half camps, the half week camps, which are the stage makeup camps, it's $50 per camp.
For the young ones that are an hour and a half, the 3 to 4 year olds, that is $85 for a one week camp. For the 5 to 8, 5 to 7-year-old range, it's gonna be $90. And then for the half day camps for the 9 to 12, 13 to 18-year-old group will be a $100. And then the all day Play Crafters camp is going to be $200. 
Amy: I will say as a parent having priced things for my child, that feels very reasonable. 
Abby: We try to make this as reasonable as you can for people 'cause we understand that it, it's a lot of money to raise a kid, so like to offer this up in an affordable rate and to offer up theatre in an affordable rate is, is super important to us at BTE.
[00:21:00] But the thing you need to remember though, is if that is still something that you need assistance with, we do offer financial aid for anyone who applies. You just have to go to our website and the bte.org/theatreschool. Down on the bottom of that webpage is a apply for scholarship financial aid. 
Amy: That's amazing. So finances are not a barrier. We wanna make sure that theatre is accessible to everybody. 
Abby: Yes. 
Amy: So if you think, man, these sound great, but I just, I don't have any extra cash, which honestly, at this moment in time, who does have extra cash. 
Abby: I know. Right? 
Amy: So please check out the financial aid that's available on our website. So where are these theatre school classes gonna take place?
Abby: These theatre school classes are going to take place at first Presbyterian Church. It's on Market Street. It is that big brown building that you get that's gorgeous. It's like that gothic, architecture. 
Amy: It is a really pretty church. 
Abby: We are in the back. You would go around the [00:22:00] alley around the church and the, our main entrance is in the back of that church.
Amy: So there's easy drop off. 
Abby: Yeah. 
Amy: There's parking. 
Abby: Yep. 
Amy: Amazing. We're, we're very appreciative of our partnership with First Presbyterian. 
Abby: We are. They're amazing. 
Amy: Abby, I have to ask, do you have a favorite part of Theatre School? 
Abby: I think because Summer Theatre School is one of our more attended theatre school offerings. I think seeing all of the students who came to years before. Or, and meeting all the other new students who are coming in. I think that's the most exciting thing for me because I remember when I was that age, I think about this all the time.
If I had had this opportunity when I was growing up, my goodness, I would be a completely different artist today. 
Amy: Oh yeah. Same. 
Abby: Yeah. So I'm, I'm, that's what keeps me motivated is the idea that I'm offering something up to kids that I didn't have an opportunity to have. 
Amy: Yeah. 
Abby: And, they get to spend their summer with me. And that's a delight. [00:23:00] 
Amy: It's a delight. Yeah. I always love. Watching kids make new friends. 
Abby: Mm-hmm. Yes. That's so fun to watch too. 
Amy: Like they come in and sometimes they know kids that are in the class, sometimes they don't. But then by the end of the week, they've all found their people. 
Abby: That's so funny you say that because I have an anecdote.
My son ended up taking an Improv class, one or two summers ago and the first day of camp I came to pick him up 'cause I ended up not teaching this one. And uh, I was like, so how'd it go? And he's like, mom. I found my people. 
Amy: Oh yeah. 
Abby: I was like, yay. I was so happy. 
Amy: That's the best. 
Abby: Yeah. Isn't it?
Amy: That is. Speaking of anecdotes, do you have any fun, entertaining, silly, theatre school stories you wanna share with our listeners? 
Abby: Um, I think the funnest thing to do is to, to, to be quite frank, and this is more of a general, not a specific anecdote. But, the fact that you can get some unexpected kids to do some [00:24:00] unexpected things, right?
And this is, this is specific where I had a student who, well, like, quite frankly, I had a hard time with him cursing in class. Like he was a delight, but he just, he was in a family that I guess didn't care about that. And I was like, you can't do that. You can't do that. But like, he was all for everything.
Like I had him in an old lady wig and an old lady outfit. Like he played it, he played the opposite gender. He was completely comfortable with it. And he was, he really owned it. And he was just like I, when I first met him, I did not expect that from him. 
Amy: Yeah. 
Abby: And to be able to be like, ha ha. He's got a good sense of humor and I love that.
Amy: Kimie and I have a, a similar story. We just finished teaching our spring, Devising class yesterday, so this is fresh in my mind. But we had a student in class, very sweet student, but very shy. 
Abby: Yeah. 
Amy: And a real thinker like would really think before making any decisions before he jumped into any of the activities. And it was the last day and we [00:25:00] were putting together this scene. It was a Devising class. So the, there wasn't a predetermined script. And so there was this moment where, as his character, he kind of froze and he was like, what do I do? 
Abby: Mm-hmm. 
Amy: What do I say? And so like, we stopped and we talked about, there's a premise in theatre called The Magic. If, like, what would you do? If you were in this situation and we talked through that and you could see him kind of internalize it and you could see it kind of click and he's like, okay, okay, okay. And then for the entire rest of the afternoon, he was so dropped in to character and scene. He was answering in character. He was following the sequence of events in character and making choices based on that. And he is so witty. So funny. He had Kimie and I just rolling on the floor. Oh, that's great. Like at one point a character came in just blathering about something and he was supposed to be the president of Swiss-erland and she was his cheese advisor.
And so she came [00:26:00] in blathering about a new cheese that she discovered and he looks at her and goes. Good morning. 
Abby: He got some sass behind him. 
Amy: Like, you didn't greet me, the president of Switzerland. And, and then there was a cheese scammer that was trying to sell him Swiss cheese, but he was the president of sw.
It was, it was great. but watching him light up and like make that connection and be like, mm-hmm. Oh, I get it. And then to go with it. I love that. I love that so much. 
Abby: It's the most rewarding experience. 
Amy: All right. Anything else you wanna share with our listeners? 
Abby: I think the main thing I wanted say is if you are hesitant about trying theatre, I think Summer Theatre school is a really good way to dip your toe into the performing arts.
It's half a day for one week and you will have a ton of fun. And if you don't, that's okay too. This theatre's not for everybody, but [00:27:00] I truly believe that theatre is for most people. Yeah, It's rewarding and it's beneficial in more ways than just as a performer.
Like the things you learn in theatre school classes will benefit you years down the line in anything else that you do. 
Amy: 100%. And I will say, if you've got a kid that's shy, we don't ever force kids to participate in something that they don't want to. It's always an open invitation. They can participate at their comfort level.
We do encourage them to participate and we work with them if there are some nerves going into that. So if you've got a kid that's looking to beef up their, uh, if you're, uh, what's the word for when you're not afraid?
Abby: I don't know. 
Amy: Confidence. Goodness. Oy, oy, oy. So if you've got a kid that's looking to beef up their confidence, or you got a kid whose creativity has just ran your parent [00:28:00] brain dry and you want to send them somewhere to, to pick some other creatives brains, uh, we're really good at that. Yes, we are. I love the creativity that these kids bring into classes.
They come up with storylines. I would never. Think of-- 
Abby: Oh, I know I love it. 
Amy: Characters I would never invent, and it's always so entertaining. So check out our summer theatre school classes. We would love to see your kid there 
Abby: at www.bte.org/theatre school. 
Amy: Woo woo. 
All right. 
This has been Bloomsburg theatre Ensemble, Down Center: Ensemble Driven. Professional Theatre. Arts Education. Rural Pennsylvania. For Everyone. With Everyone. Summer Theatre School classes run June 9th through August 1st. We have offerings for ages three and up register online today. BTE has two presented events coming up this month.
These are special events [00:29:00] presented at our venue, offering unique programming outside of our regular ensemble productions. The first is A Closer Walk with Patsy Klein, May 1st through fourth, a musical, all about the legends, climb to stardom, then swing by the Shire for Norwood, a rock and roll tribute to the Lord of the Rings in Led Zeppelin, May 16th and 17th.
This is produced in collaboration with the Columbia Montour Visitors Bureau. Get your tickets@www.bte.org. 
Strap your shoes on and come down to Summer theatre School, 
Abby: yha
Amy: will you say week long classes again?
Abby: Week long classes. 
Amy: Yeah. You had a little bit of a week wong. 
Abby: Week wong. You can keep that in if you want. 
Amy: I will not. 
Abby: Um, we have, now I'm paranoid. 
Amy: I'm so sorry.