Temp: 31 °F
Sunday, June 17, 2001
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By ROBERT BAXTER
Courier-Post Staff
For 12 years, Mainstage Center for the Arts has been presenting a summer program that has introduced thousands of area students to theater, music and dance. The 13th season continues the tradition with four children's shows capped by a fully staged production of Cole Porter's Anything Goes in August.
There's one hitch. This year, Summer Stage has been forced out its home at Glen Landing Middle School, in Gloucester Township, so asbestos can be removed from the school's boiler room.
The closure, announced barely three months before the summer program was to start, has caused what managing director Joe Bretschneider calls "a logistics nightmare" for the company, which last week mounted a production of Grease at Camden County College.
In the past, the 450 children and teens enrolled in Summer Stage took classes and rehearsed and performed the children's shows at Glen Landing Middle School. At the end of the seven-week program, they performed an annual musical at Camden County College.
When Summer Stage gets under way Wednesday, students will take their acting, dancing, voice and technical classes at the Anne Mullen Middle School in Gloucester Township. But all rehearsals and performances will take place in the Dennis Flyer Theatre on the Blackwood campus of Camden County College.
The students will shuttle back and forth daily between the two campuses, explains executive eirector Ed Fiscella. At this point, Fiscella and Bretschneider have no office or phone lines.
Fiscella, who lives in Blackwood, has bought several cell phones on a family plan. That will enable the staff to keep in touch between the school and college. He still has not decided where to put the box office.
"Like a hotel with no 13th floor, perhaps we should have skipped our 13th season," comments Fiscella with a wry smile. "This season is going to be very interesting."
Next year, Mainstage expects to return Glen Landing, assuming the school district doesn't need to do any other major work at the school.
Summer Stage offers four courses: an apprentice program for fourth- and fifth-graders, a children's theater program for children in the sixth grade to 18 years of age, a mainstage program open to anyone who has graduated from eighth grade to age 23, and a technical program for students interested in set, lighting and sound design.
Students enrolling in Summer Stage's apprentice, technical or children's theater programs face a full schedule, continues Fiscella. The morning is given over to rehearsals and performances at Camden County College for four children's shows. Alice in Wonderland, Jungle Book, Wizard of Oz and Kids on Broadway will be performed at two- week intervals from July 11 to Aug. 3.
After morning rehearsals, the kids head to the Mullen School for lunch and classes. Then they return to Camden County College to rehearse the upcoming children's shows and prepare for Anything Goes, performed July 20 to 28.
The program usually attracts more than 400 students. Because of the switch from Glen Landing Middle School, enrollment is down about 100 students, says Bretschneider. That means a loss of $25,000 in the tuition fees that pay production costs and salaries for the 45 faculty members.
Searching for a way to sum up the season, Fiscella quotes lines from the film Apollo 13. "It's either our biggest disaster or our finest moment."
Fiscella likes to think the 13th season will be one of Summer Stage's finest moments.
The program has provided a lot of memorable moments for Cheri Howlett of Gloucester Township. Howlett's daughters, Mandy and Jennifer, have been involved with Summer Stage for many years.
"This program is fabulous. It brings out the best in everybody," notes Howlett, who is making costumes for Anything Goes. "I've seen terrific growth in the kids as they gain confidence from rehearsing and performing in the shows."
Last summer, Jennifer choreographed the Summer Stage production of Guys and Dolls.
"This program has challenged me," she explains. "I didn' t know if I could pull it off but I stepped up to the plate and did it. It was a big confidence builder."
The recent Boston University graduate will not be taking part in Summer Stage this month. She is setting off for her first teaching job in New Orleans.
Summer Stage has brought theater, music and dance into the lives of countless young people in the tri-county area, says Bretschneider, who lives in Woodbury.
"I can't tell you the thrill we feel when a production comes off and you see the smiles on the faces of the children," he explains. "This program means so much to the kids and the audiences who see their shows."
Summer Stage developed out of the Drama Club, founded by Fiscella and Bretschneider shortly after they began teaching English at the Glen Landing Middle School 26 years ago.
Both majored in English at LaSalle University. Without knowing it, both applied for teaching jobs at Glen Landing.
A veteran of college shows, Fiscella asked Bretschneider to help him form the Drama Club. While Fiscella provided the artistic direction, Bretschneider shouldered the technical and business side.
The success of their partnership led to Summer Stage and ultimately to Mainstage Center for the Arts which sponsors programs and performances for children and teens throughout the year.
Fiscella says he decided to commit himself to community theater when he was sitting in costume backstage during a performance of Hamlet at LaSalle.
"I realized I wanted to teach and give something back to the community," says Fiscella. "This program means so much to the kids who take part in it."
Greg Harr of Somerdale began taking part in Summer Stage almost a decade ago.
"I didn't have the natural ability other kids had," recalls Harr. "But I was able to develop my skills at Summer Stage."
Since 1999, the 22-year-old graduate of the University of Delaware has directed one of the children's shows.
This summer, Harr directs Jungle Book.
"Ed took a chance on me. He trusted me," says Harr. "I learned how much I love working with children. In the fall, I'll be teaching 8th grade social studies in the Moorestown public schools."
Bretschneider and Fiscella say they keep their commitment to Summer Stage because of the support of young people like Harr and Jennifer Howlett.
"Their stories mean so much to us," notes Bretschneider. "The children become better people, better citizens. That makes us believe we're going to make this summer work in spite of all the obstacles."
More information Mainstage Center for the Arts' Summer Stage opens Wednesday. Enrollment is still being accepted for the apprentice program ($220), the children's theater program ($270), mainstage program ($100) and technical program ($250).
Summer Stage will perform children's shows, Alice in Wonderland Wonderland (July 11 to 13), Jungle Book (July 18 to 20), Mississippi Jamboree (July 26), Wizard of Oz (July 25 to 27) and Kids on Broadway (Aug. 1 to 3), and one adult show, Anything Goes (July 20 to 28), at Dennis Flyer Theatre, Camden County College, Blackwood.
For information and tickets ($5 and $6 for children's shows and $10 and $12 for Anything Goes), call (856) 589-7710 or visit the Web site www.mainstage.org.