For the 17th consecutive year, what started as a group of young, relative strangers from all over the area became a formidable acting troupe during the Goshen Community Theatre’s Youth Theatre Workshop.
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TORRINGTON – For the 17th consecutive year, what started as a group of young, relative strangers from all over the area became a formidable acting troupe during the Goshen Community Theatre’s Youth Theatre Workshop.
The young thespians – ranging from third grade to eighth grade students – performed ‘We the People,’ an original musical Thursday night in the Eastern Wyoming College Auditorium. The performance was the culmination of a week’s worth of practices where the students learned the ins and outs of theater like working on the crew and painting the sets, as well as skills they will need on the stage.
“They learn about using microphones,” co-director Erin Jespersen said. “They learn about how to be a backstage crew. They’re about building prompts, and they learn about a lot of the different aspects of theater. We do games that are geared toward projection and being a character.”
“They learned a lot of theater vocabulary,” said Lisa Fluckiger, the other half of the directing team for this year’s play. “They learned backstage etiquette. Like if it is not your prop, don’t touch it. They have to memorize their lines in their cues. They have to memorize lyrics and dances.”
This year, 43 young actors and actresses attended the workshop. That is the second-highest number or participants the program has ever had. The large group presents its challenges, Fluckiger said, but it has its advantages, too.
“A larger group naturally brings an energy to the stage,” she said. “You don’t have as much of that when you have a smaller group.”
The large ensemble featured four performers in their last workshop. Ruth Anne Johnson, Avey Jespersen, Emma Walker and Maia Harris have all been a part of the workshop as long as they could.
Johnson, who lives in Thermopolis but attends the workshop because her grandparents live in Torrington, said she likes performing the best.
“My grandparents live here,” she said. “They urge me to do it every year. They told me to do it the first year and I really liked it, so I kept coming back because it is a fun experience. I like the songs and dancing.”
Avey Jespersen said she enjoys coming to the workshop to work with the younger performers.
“I just like being an influence for the younger kids that are coming,” she said. “I like being able to act out things and being able to express my sillier side or my serious side.”
Being on stage during the workshop is special for Walker and Harris, who said they like being a part of the theater world because it allows them to be themselves.
“I feel like it is a very open environment,” Walker said. “I feel like there is a lot of room to be who you are here, when you get up on stage she put on a persona and no one can really judge you for that.”
“I can be a different person. I can act as weird as I want or be as hilarious as I want. No one will judge me for because I’m just being me, and that’s over doing here.”
With leadership from Erin Jespersen and Fluckiger, following the lead of Thompson, Jespersen, Walker and Harris, the crew came together to deliver a strong performance Thursday night.
“The thing that surprises me the most, and even though you wanted to practice like they will perform, not a lot of kids do,” Fluckiger said. “Then they knock you back - and all of the sudden - they perform.”
