Where Every Child Is a Star

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The performance of Seussical in 2004 raised the level of RCT’s music theatre program that led to last season’s challenging hit Jesus Christ Superstar.

With anticipation shining in her eyes, Shannon Maloney first skipped through the doors of Riverside Children’s Theatre as a second-grader. On her way to an acting class, she was about to discover a world of wonder where she could be a princess or pirate one day, a flower or frog the next. Since then Shannon has participated in numerous classes and workshops that have enhanced her natural acting, dancing and musical abilities; she has also performed onstage and been busy working behind the scenes. For the now high school senior her RCT experiences have been so positive she plans to pursue acting in college.

Shannon is not alone. Over the years thousands of children have come to the Agnes Wahlstrom Youth Playhouse and Anne Morton Theatre on Riverside Drive to gain an appreciation for live theatre. That was the concept which prompted a group of parents, among them Celeta Arden, Jaceyn Block, Carole Bakule, Ken Macht and Linda Downey to form the Riverside Children’s Theatre Committee in 1980.

Thanks to a plan approved by the Vero Beach Community Theatre Trust (which evolved into Riverside Theatre), coupled with community support and cooperation from the Indian River County School District, they succeeded in presenting The Barber of Seville, performed by the South Florida Theatre Company to 500 children and adults that first year. 
 

Read the entire article in the November 2010 issue

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