STAGE DOOR CONSERVATORY
Offers four popular summer camp programs in musical theater and the performing arts to children in the 3rd through graduating 12th grade. Based in Berkeley, our programs are in close proximity to Albany, Richmond, Oakland, Piedmont, Alameda and other East Bay and Contra Costa communities. Acclaimed artistically, our day camps provide an enriched, supportive and often profoundly memorable experience for children interested in developing and expressing themselves as young actors and theater artists.

OUR MISSION

Stage Door Conservatory nurtures the social, emotional and intellectual development of children using by the performing arts as a vehicle of learning. By supporting children to express themselves as theater artists and engage collaboratively with others in the creative process, we help them develop both confidence in themselves and their potential and greater acceptance, appreciation and respect for others.

FOCUS

STAGE DOOR CONSERVATORY was established in 1999 as an outgrowth of the Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center’s OnStage program. We offer a variety of programs in musical theater to children in the 3rd through graduating 12th grade, including KIDS ON STAGE, ON BROADWAY, TEENS ON STAGE and BACKSTAGE.

In addition to exemplary training and instruction in acting and vocal and dance technique, and the design and construction of stage sets and props, KIDS ON STAGE, ON BROADWAY and TEENS ON STAGE conclude with the performance of a play as a culminating experience, providing each child with an experience of performing as an actor in a fully-staged production.

ON BROADWAY and TEENS ON STAGE present fully staged Broadway plays for three to four days each summer, both at settings such as The Performing Arts Center at El Cerrito High School and the Florence Schwimley Little Theater. The past seven years our productions of “Hairspray,” “Les Miserables(School Edition),” “Chicago,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Footloose,” “Grease,” “The Wiz,” “Anything Goes,” “Urinetown,” “Oliver,” “Gypsy,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Annie” and “Grease” have been sold to audiences of as many as 350 - 500 persons per performance. Through KIDS ON STAGE, we also produce five shorter plays each summer, drawing audiences of an average of 100 persons per performance for casts of approximately 20 young actors. Our BACKSTAGE participants are integrally involved in all our productions, including sound and lighting design, stage management, choreography, vocal coaching and direction.

During the weeks preceding each of our seven annual summer productions (one for ON BROADWAY, one for TEENS ON STAGE and five for KIDS ON STAGE) our cast and crew undergo an intensive rehearsal process. As a part of this process, each child is guided through the process of developing his or her character/s, and learning those songs or dances he or she may be performing individually or as a member of a chorus or ensemble. In addition to the group training activities that are featured as a regular component of our program, each child is also offered personalized coaching from our instructors and apprentices to nurture his or her talents and confidence as a performer.

Although many of our participants are committed actors, we welcome children with no prior theater exposure, curious to explore or develop their interests in the theater arts, and create a warm, welcoming and supportive environment for learning. Other than ON BROADWAY and TEENS ON STAGE, which we will limit to no more than 35 students per program in 2013, most of our programs/sessions include no more than 20 children. This helps ensure that we can provide the highest caliber of training and support to each child, so that their experience of Stage Door is as enjoyable and rewarding as possible. It also helps foster the development of an ensemble among the young persons in our programs, and provides them with the opportunity to support and mentor one another as performers.

Stage Door Conservatory welcomes both seasoned performers as well as children just beginning to explore their interests in the arts. Whatever level of experience, your child will be valued and appreciated as an integral member of our artistic community, a community which emphasizes cooperation and collaboration rather than competition as a core value.

During his or her time at our camp, your child will participate in a variety of planning, problem-solving and decision-making activities, so that in addition to training in the theater arts, our participants have the opportunity to develop skills that will help them succeed both at school and in their family and community lives, and in their futures as adults.

Stage Door Conservatory is overseen by a dedicated staff of arts educators representing the fields of music, dance, costume design and stage, set and prop design. Our curriculum and programs incorporate best practices in theater and arts education, as well as standards established by the American Camp Association, in which we are a member.

For the past six years, support for our programs has been increasing exponentially. Our enrollment increased more than 20% in 2011. Popular and critical support of our productions has also increased significantly the past three years, especially in 2011 with our production of Les Miserables in tandem with the Oakland Civic Orchestra. In addition to tuition and ticket sales, we are supported through gifts from private donors and grants from organizations such as the Alameda Art Commission and the California Council for the Arts. With these successes, we are embarking upon our second decade with several goals to further refine and expand our programs, so that we can continue to provide exemplary arts education in musical theater to children in our community.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Since it was founded more than a decade ago, Stage Door Conservatory has become one of the East Bay’s most popular theatrical programs. Last year, approximately 160 young persons participated in our programs, learning the craft of musical theater and stage design as well as performance. By comparison, approximately 80 children participated in 2004, and 60 - 65 participated in 2002 and 2003.

In addition to children from economically stable families in Berkeley and Albany, we offer our programs at reduced cost to low-income families in Richmond, Oakland and other East Bay communities, including Contra Costa County. In 2011 and 2011, we provided more than $75,000 in tuition subsidies to children from economically stressed families as a part of our commitment to inclusiveness.

As a part of our enrollment outreach, we contact teachers in schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, as well as publicize and advertise our programs in publications such as East Bay Express, Bay Area Parent and Parent’s Press that are broadly available and accessible throughout the East Bay. In 2011, we provided significant financial aid (25% - 100% of full cost) to at least 25% of our enrollees for a total of $50,000 in aid.

Due to our tuition subsidy program, and exemplary programming, many of our enrollees have elected to participate in our programs for many consecutive summers, developing their talents and skills through their involvement in increasingly complex productions. In fact, nearly all our ON BROADWAY actors first entered KIDS ON STAGE and are now pursuing theater arts as an integral component of their high school education.

While our productions have always been widely attended, with our growing popularity and successful advertising, media and community outreach campaigns, most of our productions have been sold to capacity in recent years, with many members of the general community in attendance. Although we employ a sliding scale fee and accommodate many persons without the means to pay, we increased our income from ticket sales significantly the past five years.

We have retained a dedicated and well-qualified team to oversee our camp, and in the past two years have offered stipends of $100 - $1,000 to the 20+ high school apprentices who enrolled in our BACKSTAGE program. We also established two new programs in the past seven years, beginning with the creation of our TEENS ON STAGE program in 2005, and our Spring Conservatory in 2006.

These successes have enabled us to serve a broad range of children, from differing backgrounds and levels of experience, expanding access to arts education to East Bay children, as well as aided us in developing our capacities organizationally and administratively.

ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS for 2013

• Provide exemplary conservatory training and performance opportunities in musical theater (drama, music, dance, stage and set design and stage direction) to 160 children in grades 3 - 12 in 2013, including at least 25 children from low-income Bay Area families and communities
• Present six theatrical productions in 2013, including two fully-staged Broadway musicals
• Conduct extensive community outreach in 2013 to ensure that children from a wide variety of socio-economic and ethnic and cultural backgrounds are offered the opportunity to participate in our programs
• Develop a five year plan with goals for the organization’s future, and strategies to ensure its long-term sustainability
• Establish and implement the Stage Door Conservatory ART ACCESS FOR ALL Scholarship Fund for low-income children by June 2013 with an initial amount of $25,000 from grants and contributions form a minimum of five Bay Area foundations and corporations
• Expand participation in the Stage Door Conservatory’s 2013 Teens on Stage program to include 25% more students, including teenagers from low-income Alameda and Contra Costa counties
• Incorporate specialized skills based workshops into curriculums for On Broadway and Teens on Stage
• Further develop and refine Stage Door’s bank of props, costumes and staging units
• Provide paid pre-vocational training in musical theater production to 15 - 20 high school student interns (or trainees) in 2013
• Further refine and develop Stage Door Conservatory’s capacities administratively and organizationally
• Further develop and refine Stage Door Conservatory’s website and marketing materials in 2013