Since surviving last year’s near-death experience, the Westport Country Playhouse has reached out to many new audience,
Among them: much younger people.
They did it with a concert of Taylor Swift songs, then a “Pinkalicious” show and book signing.
The outreach continues, with a new education program. “Playhouse Playmakers” begins October 13, and runs through November 24. It ends with a special performance created by the 15 middle school students — complete with their own writing, acting and production.
This will not be a haphazard, “let’s put on a show”-type show.
One co-director, Evette Marie White, is an actor, poet, playwright and educator. She has performed around the world, and also taught talented youngsters.
The other co-director, Stacie Morgain Lewis, is well known to Westporters. A resident since 2017, she is an actor, singer songwriter and teacher. Her Broadway credits include “Sunday in the Park with George,” “Wicked,” “Urinetown” and “Titanic.”
She also wrote the children’s album “Harmoize with Ben Cohn,” the conductor and musical director of “Dear Evan Hansen.”
Lewis then created Harmonize Kidz, an arts enrichment program that uses music to teach social-emotional learning to elementary students.
Stacie Morgain Lewis, in action with kids.
She has known Mark Shanahan for many years — both as a friend, and someone who directed her. When he was hired as Playhouse artistic director, Lewis was “over the moon. There is no better person for that position.”
Lewis is excited to be working with Shanahan again.
She says that the “Playhouse Playmakers” program is particularly important these days.
“Kids are so caught up in phones and screens,” Lewis explains. “This is a no-phone zone, where they learn to collaborate, discuss, argue and play.”
Middle school is a time when youngsters suddenly become more self-conscious, she notes. Playing theater games, they learn “it’s okay to feel awkward.”
Westport has a rich theater, music and arts education legacy, Lewis says. (It’s one of the reasons she and her husband looked only at this town, when they were moving from New York.)
When developing “Playhouse Playmakers,” she adds, “We didn’t want to compete with people and programs that have been here for years. We tried to find a niche. Creating plays and feeling like ‘artists in development’ was something we thought we could do, and do well.”
Lewis understands the importance of both arts education, and the Westport Country Playhouse, to the town.
She has memories of the theater from her years growing up in Monroe, and recalls how excited New York actors were when they got a gig there.
Now, she and White will impart that love for this theater — and stages everywhere — to the next generation of budding actors.
(The $575 fee for “Playhouse Playmakers” includes all 6 sessions, technical rehearsal, materials, and 4 tickets to the performance. Five scholarships are available, each covering the full cost of classes and transportation reimbursement. For registration and more information, click here. For questions about the program or scholarships, email educationteam@westportplayhouse.org.)
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