Future actors and actresses recently had the opportunity to showcase their skills thanks to a little help from Barter Theatre.
The facility, located in Abingdon, Va., saw hundreds of spectators come out during the month of July for the conclusion of the Barter Youth Academy (BYA) summer sessions. Students from Elizabethton were treated to lessons at the Elizabethton-Carter County Public Library, said David Alford, BYA founder and artistic director at Barter.
“We just completed our summer session, which features musical theatre,” Alford said. “Elizabethton students met at the library twice a week to learn acting, choreography and singing. At the end of the six weeks, the students traveled to Barter Theatre to join students from all over the region for the BYA’s Summer Musical Festival.”
Over 160 students from Elizabethton, Kingsport and Abingdon performed on both Barter stages throughout the day and even took part in a cast party at the Barter Green.
“(They) were with the Barter Players, Paper Moon Arts and Crafts, King William Art Museum and the Johnson City Circus Company,” Alford said.
The director went on to add that elementary students from Elizabethton performed an hour-long presentation of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” on Stage II. Middle school and Elizabethton High School students also got a chance to show their stuff by performing Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” on the Barter main stage.
“The venues changed throughout the day as students from different cities took the stage and presented their shows they had worked on during the summer,” Alford said, adding it was the BYA’s largest event to date with right under 1,500 individuals attending Barter.
“Students were playing to huge houses,” he continued. “The audience’s response to their performances was phenomenal. Many parents couldn’t believe how much the students had learned in such a short period of time.”
It was a proud moment for the students, families and Alford, who founded the BYA in 2011.
“The idea was to create an educational theatre program that would ignite the creativity of students,” he said. “It gives students a theatre experience similar to what we experience as actors at the Barter. We take them through the theatre process from auditions to a performance in front of an audience.
“The confidence and growth the students gain as they meet new friends, learn new performance skills and feel the affirmation of applause has made a huge difference in the lives of many of our students,” he continued. “Not only do they feel more connected to a community of students, but they personally feel more empowered to speak up and let their voices be heard. It’s an exciting thing to watch … we had students who really wish to pursue theatre as a career. We also have students with different interests who benefit greatly from learning how to address an audience and effectively tell a story that holds their attention.”
Since its inception, the BYA has expanded “exponentially,” Alford said, and Elizabethton, while the smallest group, has been able to reap the rewards of the success.
“We’ve gone from three workshops with just 30 students in Abingdon to 17 workshops with over 200 students in four cities,” he added. “Dick Majors, the director of the theatre department at Milligan College, brought our attention to Elizabethton and helped us meet the folks we needed to get started there.”
The founder went on to credit the assistance from the library for the growth, noting that Elizabethton has the smallest enrollment but the workshops saw a bump in attendance this year.
“The library has been key to our coming to town and has kindly helped us every step of the way,” he said. “We started there last summer and the program has been slowly growing there since.”
BYA has three sessions a year, spring, summer and fall. The fall session is right around the bend, Alford said, and registration for the sessions at the library are underway. Students that participate will be under the direction of the husband and wife duo of Josh and Madeleine Bullen. Participants will prepare at the library and return to Barter in November to perform different plays. Elementary students will perform “Charlotte’s Web” while middle and high school performers have “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” Alford went on to add that anyone interested about registration information can visit bartertheatre.com online and click on the ‘Education’ tab.