- Main Stage Productions: Our Main Stage Season is the mainstay of our operation. We offer four productions each season, a carefully crafted slate of time-honored classics and new, original works designed to appeal to a diverse audience. Main Stage productions are cast with either all Actor’s Equity Association (AEA) professionals or a mix of professional and community actors ranging in age from elementary school to adult. At The Growing Stage, we hold the mentoring of young people as a fundamental responsibility, and the professionals we cast are an excellent resource and example for our aspiring young cast members. It is also a provides a unique opportunity for families and a growing number of intergenerational families to share a moment in the theatre. One parent wrote, Our family have so much enjoyed the productions presented over the years. The Growing Stage and all you who work so hard to make the productions possible are such an asset to this greater community. What a creative opportunity!” – Harriet Muir.
- Education Programs: Since our inception in 1981, the Growing Stage has offered classes and workshops that provide young people from pre-school to high school the opportunity to experience and actively participate in the arts. The mission of our educational programs is not to create classes that develop young professionals, but rather to develop professional, creative programs for young people that are both educational and engaging. We have also created a workshop program focused on musical theatre and dance for the Morris Area Girl Scout Council and have been selected as a theatre mentor for the Boy Scouts of America. To date, each of our three Girl Scout workshops have attracted over 50 scouts and leaders. In the summer of 2011 we will mark the 25th Anniversary of our Summer Arts Day Camp – a program that has fostered not only the arts education of the young people that come as campers, but also provided a launching pad for aspiring education students that work as camp counselors alongside our professional teaching artists. This summer we provided an online survey for the parents whose children participated in the Growing Stage camp experience. Some of their anonymous comments include the following – “I feel that this experience helped to build my daughters self confidence to speak in front of people. I think she developed leadership and co-operation skills that can be used in the classroom and socially working/playing in groups.”
- Arts in Education Programs: Recognizing the paramount importance of the arts in the education of our children, the Growing Stage offers school day productions both in our theatre and in schools. Our “Main Stage Matinees,” presented at the Palace Theatre, are shows with a full AEA professional cast, and they are offered to groups at a most affordable per-seat cost. We encourage schools to experience live theatre in our theatre, as this engages children more fully in the performance environment and excites them about returning to live-performance venues. For schools that are unable to travel to our theatre, we offer Tales from the Garden an original, professionally cast production that celebrates the history, poetry and folklore of New Jersey. Feedback from an educator in Wayne School District included the following thoughts, “The Growing Stage is a treasure for providing school and families with excellent, affordable entertainment. Each year we look forward to old favorites and eagerly await new productions for our students.” This season we will be including Across the Wide & Lonesome Prairie that we have co-produced with Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey. Of that production that we premiered through our Studio Presentation Series this past season, Bill Westhoven of the Daily Record wrote, “a stirring night of theatre with performances that are worthy of a larger audience.”
The Growing Stage is dedicated to the ideal that the arts should be inclusive rather than exclusive, and to that end we actively pursue funding for our programs so that our costs are less than similar offerings. Our classes are taught by professionally trained teaching artists chosen specifically for their ability to mentor and inspire young people. The arts invite young people to create, explore and share with others their natural gifts of imagination and expression. The Growing Stage is committed to that ideal.
