In honor of Mother’s Day this month, we are shining the spotlight on moms who have made it their mission to immerse children in the world of performing arts. If, as Shakespeare famously wrote, “All the world’s a stage,” then these women are definitely stars.
The Big City
Lisa Post works in the heart of the theater world in New York City. The Pleasantville mom is the executive vice president of The New 42nd Street, a nonprofit organization that has helped to make the once-blighted area of 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues into a major destination. Perhaps its best-known project is The New Victory Theater, which is billed as the city’s “first and only full-time performing arts theater for kids, their families and classmates.”
“We travel all over the world looking for great shows that kids will enjoy,” Post says. “We think that kids – and their parents – deserve to see the very best theater, dance, circus, puppetry and music.”That translates into a smorgasbord of surprising offerings for all ages. This season alone, the New Vic (as it’s called) has showcased Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, along with a contemporary circus company from Australia, and a dance crew from Amsterdam. The season caps off with two presentations in June that have the audience actually sitting on stage watching the performers work their magic!
Post oversees all of the departments of The New Victory, from theater operations and marketing to education and artistic programming. But when it comes to finding the right shows to present, it seems that is its own form of art.
“Our first criteria in choosing shows is that we, the adult members of the programming department, love them,” Post explains. “If we’re not moved or touched or excited by a show, we won’t put it on our stage.”
And just because that stage happens to be right near some of Broadway’s biggest theaters, you definitely won’t be paying Broadway prices. Tickets range from $14 to $38 for most shows, adding up to an affordable outing for families to share.
Post feels the theater can offer quality time and interaction that has become somewhat elusive in today’s society. “We all spend so much time these days one-on-one with screens, that we sometimes forget how great it is to experience something live together as a family, and talk about it afterwards,” she says.
Kid Favorites
Of course, New York City isn’t the only place you’ll find world-class theater. Westchester is known for having its own wonderful arts scene. Take the Emelin Theatre in Mamaroneck. Founded in 1972, it’s a small, cozy space that has seen its share of big-name talent, including Idina Menzel and Christine Ebersole. But it also features many family-friendly offerings on weekends.
Lisa Reilly, a mother of two who lives in Morningside Heights, is the executive director of the Emelin. She is in charge of booking shows, about a third of which are for children. But don’t expect to simply see copies of the productions on the Great White Way. “I care very much about staging and innovation,” Reilly says. “I also think there’s something to be said for stuff that sort of changes the dimensions of what can be done.”
This season at the Emelin has seen kid-favorites brought to life such as Charlotte’s Web, Seussical! and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Reilly points out her college-aged daughter will still come to see the latter on stage thanks to its cool puppetry and use of black light. Reilly also chose to bring back We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, which she calls “bar none the most imaginative show I’ve ever seen … It looks like something that a genius 7-year-old put together in their basement.”
A trip to the Emelin is also kind to the wallet, with tickets for family performances costing just $13 apiece! But the experience for kids may truly be priceless. Reilly says she sees an immediate response from the children in the audience. “They have this sense that these things can be expressed in new and different and exciting ways. And it may mean that they are seeing different cultural things than they had seen before.”
Reilly has a great example of the impact theater can have on young minds. She says a couple of years ago, the Ailey II Company (from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) invited some kids at the Emelin to get on stage and show off their dance moves. To her surprise, it wasn’t the girls who joined in, but the boys who got really excited.
“They all wanted to show that they could bust a move and it was clearly partly because there were all these really strong African-American men dancing and all these little African-American boys were like ‘If you can do it, I can do it.’ It was a really empowering moment,” Reilly recalls.
Lisa Post’s feelings about the influence of performing arts mirror those of Reilly’s. “In my experience, kids who are involved in the arts are more tolerant and more creative. The arts inspire kids and make them hopeful,” she says.
Kids On StageFor nearly 20 years, one White Plains mom has watched the hopes and dreams of children turn into reality on the stage … her stage. Jill Abusch is the artistic director and co-founder of The Play Group Theatre in White Plains. The other co-founder? Her husband, Steven, who is also the executive director. The couple’s two daughters have been raised in the theater, with both appearing in numerous PGT shows and helping out behind the scenes.
Abusch calls herself the “resident creative mommy” and also a “second mom” to the countless students who pass through the doors of The Play Group Theatre. Similar to both Post and Reilly, Abusch also chooses shows for the season, but in this case children do the acting. Plus, she has some very practical duties such as “pinning hair, drying tears and making sure actors have had enough to eat.”
You could say she also feeds those actors’ spirits by encouraging them to build their character, take risks and believe in themselves.
“The study of theater allows students to discover the sound of their own voices – literally,” Abusch says. “Students of the theater learn to act confident even when they feel nervous. They learn that being nervous doesn’t mean you can’t do it. They learn that their voice matters.”
She suggests the end result is confidence and an emotional maturity that can extend beyond the theater back into the classroom and other social situations.
“Children that make art together learn to see each other in new ways, expanding their appreciation for various characteristics and personalities,” Abusch notes.
And those kids may just develop an appreciation for their biggest fans – their families. Abusch saw it happen firsthand this year with The Play Group Theatre’s first-ever “Parent Cabaret,” where students sat in the audience while their parents did the singing.
“[The parents] all said they never would have had the courage to do it if they hadn’t seen their kids be so brave all those years, and if they hadn’t had their encouragement. Some of them were conquering years of stage fright, too! And why were their kids brave enough in the first place? Because their parents had encouraged them to the stage years before. Really, amazing,” says Abusch.
Guess there really is “no business like show business.”
Andrea White is a writer and a big fan of the theater. She lives in Edgemont with her family.
Other Mom Stars
Here are two other Westchester moms, involved in performing arts, who our readers say also deserve a round of applause.
Putnam Valley mom Theresa Podhurst is the founder and creative director of Star 2B Performing Arts. It started in the summer of 2012 with a small summer camp out of Podhurst’s house. Now, the group offers summer camps, as well as musical workshops and birthday parties, in both Westchester and Dutchess counties. Podhurst says the goal is “to nurture the love and interest of theater in children. We work individually with each child to help them improve what they’d like to improve on.” Star 2B Performing Arts welcomes children ages 8 to 16 to their programs, no experience necessary. And the group is growing, adding professional actors, dancers and singers from New York City to its staff. Podhurst’s commitment to the craft has earned high praise on the Westchester Family Facebook page. Bibiana Denet says she is “an amazing woman and a wonderful role model.” And Jennifer Marie calls her “a determined woman who does it all!”
Annamarie Mastroberardino is the co-owner of New York Performing Arts Center in her hometown of Harrison. She says the goal in creating the center, now open for five years, was to “bring New York City training to the suburbs [and] create a facility where an artist can train in all areas of the performing arts under one roof.” NYPAC offers classes for kids and adults in dance, voice and acting. There is also a competitive dance team and a youth performance company called SHOWSTOPPERS, made up of 45 children from Westchester, Rockland and Connecticut who perform in original musical theater productions throughout the year. On our Facebook page, Mastroberardino’s college-bound daughter, Halle, called her mom an inspiration and “the hardest working woman I know.” And Debbie Myllek says she “shares her love of the arts with our children and infuses them with the same enthusiasm and dedication that’s in her heart.”
Take a bow, ladies.– AW
