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Adirondack Children’s Troupe was founded in 1979
by Kate Blossom, who felt there was a need in the region for a top
quality theater experience for kids from elementary school through
high school. Originally ACT was organized as a traveling troupe. Over
the years, it has evolved into three productions per year—in the fall
the production is cast with students in grades 8 through 12, in the
spring with those in grades 4 through 7, and in the summer with those
completing grades 5 through 8. It is a non-audition program. ACT takes
students on a first-come, first-serve basis. Productions are then cast
from those registered, which opens the theater experience to many more
children.
ACT’s theater experience helps children develop
communications skills and self-awareness through creative thinking and
group dynamics. These skills help promote self-esteem and confidence,
critical in molding young lives. While the on-stage product is always
important, ACT stresses the process that brings a production to
fruition. Students are taught that every job behind the scenes is as
important as what the audience sees. Without one, the other would not
occur.
The 2002-03 season marks the twenty-third year
that ACT has been producing children’s theater. In the fall of 2002,
ACT produced Hello Dolly and is now in rehearsals for The Jungle Book.
Although ACT usually produces a summer program, it will not be offered
this year due to construction at The Hyde Collection, where the summer
group normally rehearses and performs.
ACT has produced over 50 shows, most of them
musicals: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Emperor's
New Clothes, Peter Pan, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Cinderella,
The Phantom Tollbooth, The Hobbit, Mary Poppins, Charlotte's Web,
South Pacific, Pinocchio, Wizard of Oz, Snow White, How to Eat Like a
Child, Lumberjacks and Wedding Bells, Alice in Wonderland, Tom Sawyer,
Pippi Longstocking, The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe, and more.
Directors for ACT fill a roster of who’s who in area theater: Kate
Blossom, Sue Ford, Joan Aaronson, Debbi Terrio, Neal Herr, Kate
McKillip, Lisa Fedele, Rene Roberge, Bill Woodward, Dick Stein, Matt
Karris, Jim Chaffin, Andrew Daly, and others.
ACT is a not-for-profit corporation run by a
volunteer Board of Directors. Currently tuition of $120 is charged to
participate in the fall or spring productions and $100 for the summer.
Many facets are involved in producing a theater production; therefore,
parents are needed to serve on committees such as costumes, props,
programs, set construction, tickets, and pictures. This helps keep
expenses down.
ACT’s newest venture will be to call the new
Woolworth Theater home sometime in 2004. This theater project, now in
the fundraising stage, will provide a year-round performance space in
downtown Glens Falls.
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