Performing Arts Center announces schedule for arts education

Fresh off a successful summer season that saw 300 youngsters, from tots to teens, participate in its eclectic mix of classes and camps, the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center’s Nancy and Frederick DeMatteis Arts Education Program for Children is offering a vast array of performing arts training for all ages and skill levels after school and on weekends throughout the fall and winter.

The program offers many different ways to make the performing arts a part of the lives of youngsters. Participation in the performing arts can unleash creative energy, help a youngster to find his or her unique voice, reinforce valuable life skills, and support the development of an appreciation and lifelong love for the arts.

During the school year, kids will have the opportunity to explore drama and performance through a variety of musical theater camps, discover their creativity and ability to develop characters through master classes and workshops, and master the world of theater through participation in one of the East End’s most successful arts education programs. Children can sing their hearts out, open the actor’s toolbox, and explore all things theatre through the program’s new and recurring offerings.

The goal is to ignite the creative spirit in young people and spark a love of learning. The Performing Arts Center “exists to inspire the community to experience, explore and engage in the arts—and the Nancy and Frederick DeMatteis Arts Education Program for Children is key to reaching that goal,” according to Arts Education Program Director Joanna Ferraro-Levy.

For more information on the Children’s Program, contact Arts Education Program Manager Julienne Penza at 288-2350, ext. 114, e-mail her at JulienneP@whbpac.org, or visit www.whbpac.org.

The 2009-2010 schedule includes such Young Actor’s Studio weekly classes as: Play Parties and Parlor Games for ages 3 to 5, with the first session starting October 19; Acting Up for ages 6 to 8; Adventures in Acting for ages 9 to 11; and Teen Theater for ages 12 to 16, with the first session starting on October 20; along with Cabaret Choir, which has singers from 7 to 16 learning to deliver Broadway show tunes and other classics.

There will also be master classes in Audition Techniques, Playwriting, and Musical Theater Auditions as well as week-long musical theater vacation camps.

Funding for the Nancy and Frederick DeMatteis Arts Education Program for Children “School Day Performance Series” is provided, in part, by the Countess Moira Charitable Foundation, the Michael and Annie Falk Foundation, the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation, Bradley & Rochelle King, Marion and Dr. Daniel Schapiro, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Town of Southampton, and Capital One Bank.