PORT TOWNSEND — Key City Public Theatre will host a variety of afternoon classes starting next week, ranging from Theatre Adventure Club on up to Drama III, for children and teenagers.
The place is the Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona St., which has a new air cleaning and ventilation system for such indoor activities, according to its website, quimpergrange.com.
Full and partial scholarships are available for kids participating in KCPT’s youth theater programs, while information can be found at keycitypublictheatre.org. The classes, which are kept small, tend to fill up fast; waiting lists will be set up on the website if that happens.
First up: Theatre Adventure Club, which has Tuesday sessions starting April 12 and Wednesday classes beginning April 13. For first- and second-graders, it features theater games that give students a chance to learn storytelling and mime skills — and just have fun.
Elementary, middle and high school students may also look at joining the Drama I, II or III classes, which are divided by age group and previous experience. These sessions all run six weeks, meeting one afternoon per week.
Drama I highlights improvisation, character development and scene work, while Drama II delves deeper into those activities. On the last day of these courses, the students will present a showcase for family and friends.
Drama III is a new class for returning students who want to keep broadening their artistic skills and learn about audition techniques. Participants will work on their own audition material, create resumes, memorize monologues and practice for a musical audition — and at the end, the family-and-friends showcase will feature mock auditions.
KCPT’s youth program instructors this season are Brendan Chambers, Maggie Jo Bulkley and Bry Kifolo, all well-known theater artists.
Chambers, who holds a master’s degree in educational theater from New York University, is the theater company’s Artistic Associate and lead instructor — and he’s a member of the cast of “Around the World in Less Than 80 Days,” which has its world premiere next week at the newly remodeled Key City Playhouse.
Bulkley, who earned her degree in musical theater from Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts, is an actor, choreographer, costume designer and educator. She also portrays two characters in “Around the World,” journalists Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland.
Kifolo, known on the North Olympic Peninsula for her work as an actor and teacher at KCPT since 2018, is the stage manager and sound designer for the show — along with co-teaching the youth classes this spring.
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Jefferson County Senior Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
