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Montgomery Theater announces the Young Actors Company for Spring 2011. Eschewing a traditional class structure, the members of the Company will work with instructor Will Windsor Erwin to create and shape their own completely original ensemble piece. According to Jessica Bedford, Montgomery’s Director of Education: “More often than not, a young artist’s experience of the theater is being handed a script and he or she has to work within its confines to tell a prescribed story and create a character that is already outlined. With the Young Actors Company, the young artist has the opportunity to create something entirely new, never-before-seen from the Company’s individual and collective imaginations. Members of YAC will not only receive acting training, but also gain experience with story-telling and framing a narrative structure.”

The Young Actors Company offers the high school-aged artist a social environment in which he or she can gain knowledge and share in a unique, personal experience which will build skill, creativity, confidence, and imagination. The students will explore improvisation, voice and movement work, character development, and acting technique from Eastern and Western theatrical traditions; studying methods from Viewpoints to Suzuki and many in between. Working together with their instructor, the students will craft and rehearse their own ensemble piece. “Theatre is one of the only truly collaborative arts,” said Erwin, “And there is no greater collaboration than the act of taking singular thought and movement and transforming it into a piece greater than any individual.” The Company will be in residence at Montgomery Theater for six weeks meeting twice a week, with all the theater’s resources at their disposal. Sessions begin April 25, 2011, and will culminate in a final performance of their original piece Saturday, June 4, on our Project Stage.

The Company will be meet Mondays and Wednesdays in Montgomery Theater’s beautiful rehearsal hall, which overlooks Main Street. With a donation of chalkboard paint and sidewalk chalk, YAC members will get to create and decorate their own set for their final performance on the Project Stage, home of Montgomery Theater, Too productions. Tuition for the Company is $175 per student. Gift certificates, scholarships, and financial aid are available. Questions or concerns can be directed to the Director of Education, Jessica Bedford, at jessica@montgomerytheater.org. The deadline to enroll is April 4, 2011.

About Montgomery Theater

Founded in 1993, Montgomery Theater is a uniquely intimate, non-profit theatrical enterprise dedicated to bringing new
life to old tales and giving age and wisdom to new ones. Located in the old firehouse on Main Street in Souderton, PA,
Montgomery Theater brings work normally seen in big-city playhouses to a diverse suburban audience and provides an
artistic center for the regional community.

The Montgomery Theater education programs offer opportunities for children in grades 2-12 to experience theater from
a variety of angles. Montgomery Theater, Too offers performance opportunities at no cost to the child’s family. The
Theater also offers year-round acting classes and camps as well as an Artist-in-Residence program in local public and
private schools.

Montgomery Theater’s education programs have been twice nominated for Barrymore Awards. The Theater also
recently received two Barrymore Award nominations for Main Stage productions taking place in the last year. The cast
of the recent hit musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was nominated in the category of “Outstanding
Ensemble in a Musical” and Tony Braithwaite was nominated in the category of “Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play”
for his performance in last summer’s Fully Committed, in which he played more than 40 characters.