‘225’: B.R. community theaters offering youth programs to build future audiences

After much-talked-about budget cuts to the arts on the state level and nationally, local community theaters like Playmakers of Baton Rouge and Baton Rouge Little Theater are looking for ways to rally support from audiences. To raise the appeal of theater over the past several years, arts organizations have combined educational elements with their productions to provide access and context—not to mention to develop a love of theater among the youngest spectators. Playmakers, which focuses on young audiences, has implemented a steadily growing educational component in its programs, which helps expose community members and children to types of art they might not otherwise see. “The largest growth Playmakers has seen has been with our educational programs: camps, classes and our education tours,” says Karli Henderson, former managing director of Playmakers. Playmakers’ Education Director Todd Henry thinks supplemental theater education can also stave off the fast turnaround seen in kids involved with theater, typically occurring around ages 10 and 11. “You have to find projects that interest these kids,” Henry says. “We have a great group of kids in our Young Professionals program that have stuck around. Now they are 16, 17, going on 18, and have grown with us because we’ve grown with them.” The hope is that with intensive arts education, both in school and out, more Baton Rougeans might grow to appreciate the arts as essential—and Playmakers is not the only organization working to realize this wish. Read the complete feature from the current issue of 225 magazine by Jessi Stafford here.