Actors for a week: Youth summer theater puts on productions

Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Now in its 19th year, the Charles City Youth Theater has introduced hundreds of youngsters to the joys of the stage.

“Sometimes, when they try out for high school plays, they’ll cite the Youth Theater in their credits,” laughed Robin Krueger, one of two retired teachers who have been running the program for the past 17 seasons.

Krueger and Linda Hughes have been shepherding young talent through a number of short plays each summer. They are currently offered for two groups each year, one for younger and one for older students. Applications are passed out in the schools before the school year is over.

Each acting troupe takes a week to learn lines, practice stagecraft then put on a performance at the Charles Theater, usually before a crowd of doting parents and other friends and family.

Royalty-free, age-appropriate plays are selected based on the number of kids who apply for each age group, Krueger said. “They were basically written for schools.  Everybody has a line, and if I have to write a line I write a line.”

“It’s pretty low budget,” Hughes said. “They come in on Monday and get their scripts and by Friday they’re ready to put on a show.”

This year the third-through-fifth-grade actors performed “Country Store Cat.” The sixth-through-ninth-grade group performed “Hillbilly Blues.”

The program started in 2001 when two other retired teachers, Virginia Tietz and Georgie Miller, applied for and received a grant that paid for stage professionals to help put on a drama camp. It was so popular that people wanted it to continue when the grant ended, and that’s when Krueger and Hughes took over.

Many of the child actors start at the youngest age eligible and continue each year until they no longer qualify, Krueger said. And then some want to come back to help out.

McKenna Oleson and Mariah McKenzie helped out this summer as assistants.

“I’ve been calling them my student interns,” Krueger said.

“I always say this is the best-kept secret summer school there is,” Hughes said. “They read, they have to memorize, they have to learn how to work with others.

“That’s the main thing,” she said. “They have to work as a team and collaborate to put this on, and I think it’s just really good for kids to do that.”