Growing up, Jasmine Roth didn’t have the means to take theater classes.
As Arizona Theatre Company’s director of education, she wants to make sure there isn’t a child in the city in the same situation.
So, a little more than two years ago, ATCteen was launched. It offers free classes in acting and voice, improvisation, dance, movement and playwriting.
“Right from the get-go we knew we wanted it to be a free program,” she says. “I believe theater should be accessible to all.”
The program is an extension of ATC’s well-established tuition-based program, Summer on Stage, as well as the work Roth and her staff do with the schools.
“The students felt they had a home here (with Summer on Stage) and then they went back to school and we wouldn’t see them for a year,” Roth said. “And we go out to a school and spend days working with students, but at the end students would come up and say ‘what else can I do? Do you have classes?’ ATCteen started as an answer to all that.”
Students design the classes, choose and direct the shows, act, and are in charge of costumes, lighting and sets, all the while guided by theater professionals.
“The students have an active role in what they are learning,” says Roth. “Anyone can propose a project, do independent study and choose from any activity we have here.”
ATC’s managing director Billy Russo remembers quickly giving the go-ahead when the program was first proposed.
“What’s great about it is it is really led by the teens,” he says. “And because we have our own space, the kids can make theater happen in any corner of the building.”
And they do. A recent improv class was held in the art gallery at the Temple of Music and Art.
The cast of “Lock-In of the Living Dead” reacts to two of their fellow students running through an improv exercise during a rehearsal for Arizona Theatre Company’s ATCteen program.
Roth and 10 teens sit in a circle on the floor ready to go where their imaginations take them. Roth uses improvisation to help the students understand how to develop a character.
First, she asks them to walk around the room.
“Go toward an empty space,” she says. “And just be you.”
Then she prompts them to imagine they are a shoe, a color, a monsoon, even a palm tree.
“Capture the essence of the palm tree,” she says as the students walk around and act out their interpretation of a palm tree, some swaying, some leaping, some stiff and trunklike. “Where does the energy live in your body?”
There’s no awkward teen behavior, no embarrassment. They are brave and generous as they follow her lead. They laugh easily, but are deeply serious about what they are learning.
Hayden Stagg has been taking the classes for a little more than a year.
“I do it because of the meaningful connections with people and myself,” the 16-year-old says. “There’s a very emotional and spiritual connection.”
Mika Fricke, 14, is attending just her second class. She’s shy, but felt embraced by the other students. “Since I’ve been here it’s so low pressure and comfortable,” she says.
Neruda Hogrelius, who is about to turn 18, has done ATC’s Summer on Stage and a slew of other education programs the theater offers. “I have a deep love for theater, and this is the best opportunity to learn all facets of it,” he says.
While he is gaining a thorough knowledge of theater, it’s not the greatest thing he’s learned through the education program.
“The most important thing I’ve learned is self-discipline,” he says.
“They learn so much about themselves,” says Roth. “They grow so much and it shows in their confidence.”
Theater, and the arts in general, have much to teach students, ATC’s Artistic Director Sean Daniels says.
He points to studies that have found that those who are involved in the arts at a young age are better decision makers, have improved social skills, are motivated and can do keen critical thinking.
“They will be better doctors and lawyers, have more empathy, work in groups well, and can express their thoughts,” says Daniels, who grew up in Phoenix and is a product of the theater’s education programs.
“I took every class ATC had,” he says. “I know firsthand how transformative this education department can be. Every kid should walk in here and know that they can become artistic director. It happened to me.”
Writer and director Amelie Allen cracks up while talking with her cast about their characters during the first night of rehearsal of her play, “Lock-In of the Living Dead.”
