Looking for a specific grant?
Page Tools
Encouraging imagination: Flint Youth Theatre celebrates 50 years
By Ann Richards
A summer job directing a play for the Flint Youth Theatre (FYT) in 1979 was an eye-opener for Bill Ward, a Wayne State University graduate student in theater.
He was looking to supplement his income and professional resume when he was offered the chance to work with Ann Elgood, longtime executive director of the theater. To his surprise, theater for young audiences proved “more imaginative and liberating” than anything he had previously experienced.
“I was hired for the summer and I never left,” said Ward, now director of the theater, which in 2007 will celebrate its 50th year of providing live performances and arts experiences for audiences of all ages.
Today, about 52,500 patrons annually attend plays, staged readings and a drama school. The FYT has grown from a nomadic performing and teaching program with three staffers to a nationally recognized theater for young people, employing 15 full- and part-time actors, administrators and educators with an annual budget of $875,000.
FYT staffers believe theirs is the only theater for young people in the U.S. that produces its own work, presents touring works and operates a drama school. The theater emphasizes its work with schoolchildren and youth, as well as its community-based +initiatives, which often focus on controversial issues.
“I love FYT’s courage. I love their willingness to take risks,” said Joan Lazarus, a member of the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Theatre and Dance faculty and former president of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education.
“I love FYT's commitment to education and its willingness to create work that engages and challenges audiences. There are plenty of theaters doing work for children privileged enough to afford tickets. Flint is in the minority of theaters doing thought-provoking, interesting art work with and for young people from all kinds of incomes and backgrounds.”
Participants share her enthusiasm.
“It's a lot of fun,” said Allison Bamberg, 13, who began taking classes when she was 4. “I get to meet all kinds of people. It's changed me.”
Fellow actor Kevin Biles, also 13, agrees.
“I was a rolling ball of energy and imagination when I started. Now I've become a calm, focused actor.”
Both Allison and Kevin believe they have more confidence because of their participation in FYT acting classes. That confidence spills over to other aspects of their lives.
“Improv [a skit or act in which actors improvise a situation] has helped me respond fast when my teachers ask questions. It's helped me be quick on my feet,” Allison said.
“It makes you less afraid of making mistakes. It definitely builds your confidence.”
Said Kevin: “Sometimes I think about my life as a scene. Acting helps me figure out what I want and how to get it.”
The opportunity to attend or participate in FYT productions also has had a positive influence on the young actors, who learn to self-critique and apply what they've observed to their own acting techniques.
Lazarus, from Texas, credits her interest in theater for young people to FYT and, specifically, to Elgood.
“Back in the 1970s, Ann was at the center of change in the field of youth theater,” Lazarus said. “Academia had not acknowledged youth theater as an area of scholarly pursuit. I was a new professor at the University of Wisconsin when I first heard Ann speak on a panel at a national conference on theater and education. People were so interested, they packed the ballroom.”
Lazarus volunteered to arrange a pre-conference session on theater for young people at the next American Alliance for Theater and Education annual conference. That ultimately led to the creation of the National Conference of Youth Theater Directors.
“We were able to generate a 'buzz' about the work, share best practices, publish a directory and change the perceptions of our colleagues about this area of practice,” she said. “Flint was the flagship. But others were emerging and suddenly, we had a critical mass -- a contingency of support for youth theater.”
The FYT has roots in a 1953 Children's Theater Workshop for classroom teachers, sponsored by the Mott Foundation, the Junior League of Flint and Flint Community Players (a local adult theatrical group).
Among the speakers was Sara Campbell Spencer, then vice director of the Children's Theater Governing Board and a pioneer in the development of children's theater in the U.S.
Following the workshop, Flint participants committed to securing a theatrical program equal to the schools’ athletic program. The vehicle for accomplishing this was the “Mott [Foundation] Program” of the Flint Board of Education, which offered a wide variety of afterschool and evening activities for children and adults, including popular athletic programs.
A portion of the funding from the Foundation was directed to the speech and drama program, founded in 1957.
From its inception, the program focused less on performing and more on the developmental and educational aspects of creative drama. In addition to providing classes in 19 schools, serving more than 700 children, a summer children's theater was established.
In 1961, Elgood, who held a master's degree in theater from the University of Michigan, was hired as a consultant. She took over as permanent director in 1970.
Although Elgood's experience was directing and acting, she was intrigued by the opportunity to introduce theater and creative drama to children and teenagers. She focused on deepening classroom teachers' understanding of creative drama as a method of developing independent thinking and self-expression.
In addition to offering 38 drama classes at 12 city schools, Elgood introduced a short season of plays designed for multi-age audiences under the mantle of the FYT.
Another Elgood innovation to improve outreach services and build audience participation was hiring an “itinerant” drama teacher, who would visit individual schools and provide short-term instruction in creative drama.
Sue Wood, originally hired as Elgood's part-time assistant, replaced Elgood as director of the theater in 1985.
Both Elgood and Wood were employees of the Flint Community Schools. However, by the mid-’70s, Flint -- like many urban school districts -- was losing students to suburban communities. The district’s eroding tax base and loss of state educational dollars resulted in program cuts in a number of areas.
To increase earned income and lessen dependence on public funding, Elgood and Wood introduced new classes and workshops, and expanded their roster of plays. A performing arts series, featuring professional touring companies, was introduced with great success, as were standards-based curriculum guides for classroom teachers who brought their students to FYT productions.
FYT staff also began experimenting with “process drama,” a dynamic, interactive technique that engages young people with important topics by placing them in fictional situations where decisions must be made and the outcomes of those decisions explored within a protective environment.
In 1989, beginning with “The Ice Wolf,”a play about prejudice, the FYT launched a series of plays using curriculum guides and classroom-based role play to explore sensitive societal issues and maximize student involvement.
In 1996, using original writing by Flint students and process drama techniques, FYT created a play on violence, an escalating problem for students in several area school districts.
“The Seventh Dream,” authored by Ward, played to such large audiences that additional school and public performances were added. The play was remounted for a national tour and a performance on Capitol Hill, which led to national television coverage by ABC's “Good Morning America.”
In 1998, the FYT was the recipient of the Lin Wright Special Recognition Award from the American Alliance for Theater and Education for the creation of experimental and innovative works that advance the field. A year later, the alliance chose Wood and Ward jointly for the Youth Theatre Director of the Year Award.
Meanwhile, the FYT was outgrowing its facility. In 1988, it had assumed permanent residence in Bower Theater on the Flint Cultural Center campus. However, Bower, built in 1958, was stretched beyond its capacity. Growing numbers of children and teenagers were taking classes and rehearsing plays in hallways, basement storage rooms and whatever free space they could find.
To accommodate the growing numbers of patrons, students and community groups involved in FYT's various activities, in 1999 the Mott Foundation made the first of two grants totaling $2.65 million to add a classroom wing and reconfigure the theater's interior.
Since 2000, the Foundation also has granted $1,008,000 in general operating support to defray increased maintenance costs and expand activities. In 2003, when the theatre separated from the Flint Board of Education to become a member organization of the Flint Cultural Center Corporation, Mott established an endowment fund, which currently totals $2 million, for the FYT at the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.
Wood retired as executive director in 2000, after the building renovation was complete. She remained active with the theatre through 2003, however, supporting FYT's participation in the Animating Democracy Initiative, coordinated by Americans for the Arts and funded by the Ford Foundation. The FYT was one of 16 organizations selected from a field of more than 300 applicants to participate in the national program, created to foster civic engagement through arts and culture.
One of Ward's greatest challenges as artistic director has been creating an "identity" that correctly reflects the theater’s appeal to audiences of all ages. Under his direction, the FYT now offers three series of plays for the public:
- the Signature Series -- main stage productions created by the FYT for audiences of all ages;
- the Razzle Dazzle Family Series -- national touring productions for audiences ages 3 through 8; and
- the Off the Press Series -- staged readings of new scripts for older teenagers and adults.
The FYT also presents the Learning Through Theatre series for kindergarten through 12th grade audiences, using theater to bring history, literature and current events to life.
Despite the Flint area's economic problems, the FYT's drama school remains popular, offering classes year-round for students age 3 through 12th grade.
Ward remains committed to the theater's legacy of creating productions that have artistic integrity and are “relevant to young people and the teachers and adults who are making decisions about young people.”
“Our mission statement is to ‘change lives through extraordinary live theater and arts experiences,’” he said.
Like Elgood and Wood, Ward does not believe in “throwing kids on stage without the preparation that will make them successful.” Rather, he has focused his efforts on integrating young actors into productions after they have received training that moves them along a continuum of imaginative and creative dramatic experiences.
Looking forward, Ward is highly aware of the challenges he will face.
“I pretty much feel we're always at a crossroads. The challenge of course, is staffing -- and how to pay for it all,” he said.
“I know that to survive we have to cast our net further. We have to be willing to take artistic risks. Because of educational budget cuts, we have to figure out how to offer satellite programming in schools.
“One of my ambitions is to create a touring company. We dabbled a bit with that idea when we produced ‘The Seventh Dream.’ But we will always want more than a 'drive-by' relationship with kids and teachers.”