When Mandy Moyer ascended to the role of executive director at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, she received scores of notes and phone calls from friends and well-wishers.
One such call came from Tony Piazza, retired drama instructor at Allen Community College.
“Congrats on the job,” he told her, “so are you bringing the summer workshop back?”
“It was in the same sentence — the same breath,” Moyer laughed. “I told him I was thinking about it.”
In the end, there wasn’t much convincing needed.
“This is something I’ve always felt was important to the community,” said Moyer, who herself performed in past summer theatrical productions. “It’s a fun way to work with kids.”
After a few conversations with others around town, the Bowlus is resurrecting the Summer Theater program, in conjunction with the Iola Community Theatre and ACC drama department.
Youngsters entering the sixth grade through college are invited to audition for, and otherwise take part in a local production of “Schoolhouse Rock Live Jr.,” capped with a pair of public performances June 27 and 28 at the Bowlus.
Moyer will serve as director.
The project will serve as a two-week crash course on how to put together a theatrical production — in this case, a musical.
Not only will the production feature a cast of up to 20 youth, but Moyer and her team of assistants will focus on other aspects of stagecraft, such as learning hair and makeup, set design, lights and sound.
“It’s kind of the whole aspect of what theater entails,” Moyer explained, “and it gives kids something to do who may not be comfortable performing on stage.”
Auditions will run from noon to 3 p.m. Monday, June 16, at the Bowlus. From there, rehearsals and workshops run from 1 to 3 p.m. weekdays until the public performances at 7 p.m. Friday, June 27, and 10 a.m., Saturday, June 28.
“We know June is ball month, so we tried to make the schedule so they could still do those or other activities like swim team,” Moyer said.
IT WAS PIAZZA who kickstarted ACC’s summer theater in the park program not long after he was hired at the college in 1999. It began first as a Shakesepeare in the Park production, followed by a series of musicals and melodramas.
The program continued briefly after Piazza’s retirement in 2020, but with only college students, and then was done away with altogether as his successors came and went.
But Moyer remembered the relevance, the learning opportunities, and the fun that the summer productions brought.
