Children’s Stage Adventures brings the magic and joy of live theatre to schools and communities around the state. In Boscawen the group provided a residency, free of charge, to help an elementary school team produce Oliver Twist. Paula Dill Scriven said that the entire school community gained from the experience.
PAULA: They did a wonderful job creating this comeradery amongst this melting pot of students. I would say that more than half of the students had never been exposed to live theatre.
I have two boys that were involved in the production at school. My oldest, who’s ten, was unsure whether he wanted to audition; he’s shy. So he tried and he got one of the lead rolls. He was amazing, he was funny, he was outgoing and from that point on it gave him a different perspective of who he was because he realized that “I don’t have to be the shy guy, I don’t have to be the smart-brainiac-quiet guy, I can be this exciting-funny Artful Dodger” and it added another level of confidence to his being.
The children that were just sitting in the audience, the spectators, were introduced to the wonder of life theatre to be actively involved. You could feel their excitement in their laughter; and to see their schoolmates the person that they sat next to turned into a character, something outside of the normal day to day. It was just an incredible experience and opportunity. Oh, I wish you were there.