Education

Yesterday, I was driving past the drive-in movie theater and I saw that they were showing Bride Wars. This reminded me of my first visit to Midland when I was interviewing for this position. One of the first groups that I met were the Pickwick Players. This troupe performed several songs and acting scenes, and they were very impressive. The first couple of years I was in Midland, I spent a lot of time with the Pickwicks and even travelled to Ireland to perform Godspell in Irish Catholic churches with them. The original troupe of Pickwicks - when I arrived in 1997 - included Michael Arden - who stars in Bride Wars, toured with Barbara Streisand, was the star of the Broadway production of The Times They Are A'Changin' and returned to Midland in 2007 for a MAAS fundraiser; Matt Hinkley - an amazing musician and performer who has his first record out (www.matthinkley.com) and returned to Midland in 2008 for a MAAS fundraiser; Dan "Clark" Hodge - who got his Equity card after getting his MFA in Acting; Justin Tate - who has starred as the Hero's Sidekick (along with Phil Tytanic) in Summer Mummers for the past several years as well as many other MCT productions; and a young Jay Rathbone - who appeared in the movie Twilight and is making a name for himself in Hollywood. I am amazed at the talent of that group of Pickwicks, and I am constantly impressed by the hard work and dedication of all of our Pickwicks.

This week, MCT started Theatre School classes and Pickwick classes. For those who don't know about these programs, Theatre School is geared toward K-6 with after school classes. There is a class for Kindergarten and 1st graders on Mondays (where you can have fun with my son Zach), classes for 2nd and 3rd graders on Tuesdays and 4th, 5th and 6th graders on Thursday. These classes are an hour long, and this program is run by Judith Giebler with assistance from Bill Williams and Elissa Russell. In fact, we've had great enrollment this year and been able to split some groups into two classes - for example, the K and 1st graders are actually two classes running at the same time. We just started session III, and the final session is limited to those people who participated in the first three sessions, but if you have kids who want to "join the fun" we will be signing up youth for Fine Arts Camp (March 16-20) and summer theatre school soon - write Judith (judith@mctmidland.org) or Bill (bill@mctmidland.org) for more information about these upcoming opportunities.

Pickwick Players are 7th through 12th graders who audition to participate in after school classes and workshops and produce three shows each year. Classes started this week for the spring, and auditions are coming up for the spring production of Pinocchio, which is a part of our 2009 membership season. Although we are always thrilled when these young people "make it" in the business, I truly believe that the program - under the excellent leadership for Bill Williams and Judith Giebler - works hard to improve the talent, skill and confidence of all 50 youth participating in Pickwicks. Auditions for 2009-2010 Pickwicks will take place in early May - contact Bill for more information (bill@mctmidland.org).