The First Stage Children's Theater is a professional American

children's theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

based in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

founded in 1987. Its season consists of six “mainstage” shows, two shows for very young audiences, and two shows from its award-winning Young Company. First Stage also provides education for children and youth interested in theater. One of the largest children's theaters in the nation, First Stage has large annual audiences and is the second biggest theater company in Milwaukee. The theater's main performance venue is the

Todd Wehr C. Frederick "Todd" Wehr (April 14, 1889 -September 28, 1965) was an industrialist and philanthropist. He was co-founder of the Wehr Steel Company and founder of the Todd Wehr Foundation, Inc. Biography Wehr was a graduate of West Division High Sc ...

Theater at the

Marcus Center The Marcus Performing Arts Center is a performing arts center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Managed by a non-profit organization, it is marketed as Milwaukee's premier presenter of the performing arts. It is located at 929 North Water St ...

, with additional performance space and headquarters in the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center.

History

The First Stage Children's Theater, founded in 1987, was originally named First Stage Milwaukee. The young theater's first season (1987–1988) showed only 3 plays, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', ''Macbeth'' and ''The Sleeping Beauty.'' The theater's model began with a plan to produce one play for young children, one for middle schoolers, and one for high schoolers every season. Since then, it has progresses to include a wide variety of ages both onstage and off. First Stage now aims to present theater from a young persons point of view, featuring young performers in leading roles. Plays have most often highlighted growth, overcoming challenges, or the importance of individuality.

First Stage Theater Academy

The '
First Stage Theater Academy
'' was founded in 1992 to teach life skills through stage skills. It is the teaching arm of the theater, and serves more than 2000 students annually.First Stage Children's Theater- Theater Academy The Theater Academy provides classes for grades K4 through high school seniors. Classes range from one week, half-day sessions, to four week long, full-day sessions. Classes include

Musical Theater Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, Improv, Acting Theory, Voice, Movement, and

Speech Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses Phonetics, phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if ...

. The Theater Academy provides a Company Class that focuses on a particular play which students perform at the culmination of the class. The First Stage Theater Academy is also home to the award-winning Young Company, founded b
John Maclay.
The Young Company is an advanced acting troupe composed of high school actors, who perform two to three shows per year, as well as traveling to the

Utah Shakespeare Festival The Utah Shakespeare Festival is a theatrical festival that performs works by Shakespeare as their cornerstone. The Festival is held during the summer and fall on the campus of Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah, United States. Award ...

to compete in their annual youth Shakespeare competition. They have an intensive focus on

classical acting Classical acting is a type of acting that is based on the theories and systems of select classical actors including Konstantin Stanislavski and Michel Saint-Denis, including the expression of the body, voice, imagination, personalizing, improvisat ...

techniques and

. The Young Company meets in the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center every week for a two hour and forty-five minute intensive class period. The classes are taught by lead teacher
Elyse Edelman
Marcella Kearns, and the current company's director
Matt Daniels.
The Young Company's performance projects are performed in the round in Goodman Mainstage Hall in the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.firststage.org Youth organizations based in Wisconsin Theatres in Milwaukee Performing groups established in 1987 Children's theatre Theatre companies in Milwaukee