Acting for all Ages

School's out, which means hundreds of little guys and gals will be looking for something to fill those long summer days. Fortunately, one of Winchester's recreation activity centers is at it again this summer. Kidstock Theater is once more offering summer day camps, birthday parties and other family-friendly entertainment all summer long.

Kidstock Theater has been a Winchester dance, drama and art studio for 17 years and annually involves more than 1,000 kids of all ages.

Perhaps the most important and acclaimed aspect of Kidstock Theater is what Kidstock Associate Director Bob Antonelli called the "community approach."

"Kidstock has a very hands on approach to creating theater," Antonelli said. "Kids as young as three and four or as old as 15 and 16 can find a place at Kidstock. It has a definite community aspect in what we do and strive for. For kids coming their first time it's easy to jump right in, and for those returning, there are always new and exciting projects to jump right into."

Kidstock's main focus is on developing the community.

It's broken up into five levels, or acts.

The first act is for the youngest members (preschoolers and kindergarten) and is a half-day program where kids are simply immersed in the excitement and creative variety that theater has to offer.

Acts two and three are for first through fourth graders. The goal of Kidstock gets a little more focused at this level. The children choose a book of their liking and perform a play once a week based on the material they have chosen.

Act four is for kids in grades five to seven and takes place in two-week intervals. Act four deals with the participants creating a play from scratch – building sets, writing the script, rehearsing – and then performing their original play.

The fifth and final Act of Kidstock Theater is for the oldest members (grades eight to 10) and begins with the mentor program. The oldest members first help the younger members with their projects for the first half of the day, then work on their own plays the second half. Once complete, all plays are performed at Kidstock for the family and friends.

"This summer we are excited about new projects with different age ranges working together," Antonelli said. "We're expanding what and how we do what has worked so well for so long."

Kidstock Theater operates year round with five full-time employees that grow to 30 during the busy season.

Check out Kidstock Theater's summer schedule here: http://www.kidstocktheater.com/PDF/Summer_Schedule_2009.pdf