Dear Parent,

Thank you for your interest in our program. More importantly, thank you for your interest in your child or children’s creative life, because you are the most important influence in your child’s life!

Over the years, I am a constant witness to the fact that children who have parental support for the expression of their creativity are children who have a strong foundation to succeed in this ever more complex world.

When I was a little girl, I remember the joy and excitement of creating plays and performing them in my parents’ backyard. Every aspect of our production was the expression who my friends and I were. There was deep magic in our work: making the tickets, setting up the seats, assigning the roles and, most difficult of all, getting the uncooperative curtain (sheet) to open properly on the clothesline traversing our makeshift stage. Unsophisticated though our plays must have been, we did not care. We were creating...and creation is fun, powerful and, ultimately, transformative stuff. It is who we are and, as Shakespeare brilliantly penned, ‘we are such stuff as dreams of made on...’ Is there anything more important than the nurturing of a child’s dream?

If you are reading this, you are probably a smart and sensitive individual. You already know the importance of art, whether it manifests as drawing, sculpting, making ceramics, origami, writing a story or poem, or, one of my favorites, performing. Art is the creation of our truest selves and the deep acknowledgment of who we are meant to be in this world.

Acting programs have proliferated in the last ten years and I could not be happier for the competition! This is a wonderful phenomenon! It means that more parents are realizing that a nurturing performing arts program can be the catalyst for many of the characteristics we hope a child will develop and carry into adulthood: self-confidence, a healthy balance of self-discipline and flexibility, common sense, compassion for others, strong people skills and a sense of fairness.

I will brag a bit here and say that I believe our program does a great job of helping children find the best within themselves. Some of our students have been with us for many years. Yes, they always had the potential of greatness within them and, yes, I believe we have given them a strong, supportive framework in which to develop that greatness.

I hope that you will try one of our camp programs this summer. If you do, you will be enrolling your child in a fun, safe, challenging and well-designed program that has a track record of success...we have been around for fourteen years.

My husband just surveyed my note to you and said, “Don’t forget to let them know that this is not just an acting program, it is a program where young people grow strong learning about themselves and others.” I couldn’t agree more.

Warm Wishes

Mary Ann Riel