Theater program helps young people harness talent in their own backyard

By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN
Specially for Hays Post

What started 13 years ago as a way to support the high school play has grown into a tremendous opportunity for youth in a six-county area of ​​northwestern Kansas.

Developed by the Main Street Arts Council in Hoxie, the Main Street Summer Theater Festival has now expanded to six communities, all in different counties.

The 2024 festival, led by two local icons from the world of music and theatre, is now in its seventh edition. This summer, over 225 young people aged 5 to 18 had the chance to discover their creativity on stage.

This is all free for participants, as the program is funded by various grants, local donations and fundraisers.

“I don’t like the pay-to-play concept. It excludes too many kids,” said Bonnie Cameron, creative director of the Main Street Arts Council and show director of the summer festival. “I want this program to be available to every kid.”

The conditions for participation are simple.

“We just ask them to work hard, behave well and do their best,” Cameron said.

Karl Pratt, executive director of the Main Street Arts Council and festival manager, said the children are responsible for the productions.

“Over the years, we’ve helped the kids sell tickets to the shows and they’ve contributed baked goods to sell after their performances,” he said. “That allows us to plant seeds for next year’s festival.”

Work on the shows begins in May, after the spring auditions.

Realizing how busy summer youth programs can be, the directors rehearse for one hour each day, four days a week.

“That’s the model that we’ve found works best,” Pratt said. “We really require the kids to do their homework and practice at home. We hold them accountable and they always come through.”

Cameron agreed.

“We hold them to a pretty high standard,” she said. “They have to come in with their lines learned and ready to go.”

How it all started

Cameron is a born musician who studied abroad and performed opera professionally in Europe, returning to her hometown in 2011.

After helping Hoxie High School with the 2012 spring play, she decided to direct the summer production of “Snow White.”

“After that, everyone was like, ‘What are we going to do next year?’” Cameron said. “I remember thinking, ‘I guess we just started something.’”

This quickly grew into a full-fledged festival, as more and more young people joined.

The Main Street Arts Council was founded in 2015 as a non-profit organization and launched the Summer Theater Festival shortly thereafter.

The festival quickly expanded with shows in Atwood, Goodland, Colby, Quinter and Oakley.

Coincidentally, all six cities where the productions are staged are located in different provinces, giving more children the opportunity to participate.

“A big part of our mission is to provide that opportunity at home, so they don’t have to travel three to four hours to participate in something like that,” Pratt said. “There’s a lot of untapped talent in their own backyard that you don’t know about until they have the opportunity to express it.”

“It was very organic, knowing other teachers and talking about what we were doing in Hoxie,” Cameron said. “All of a sudden it just started to get bigger.”

The council has acquired over 3,000 costume pieces and many other materials over the years and these are all being stored for use next year.

“We’ve collected materials for over 20 different shows,” Pratt said. “That allows us to recycle materials and perform them year after year in different communities.”

Although the starting age for participation is 5, a younger sibling is occasionally allowed to take the stage. This year, for example, 4-year-old Kolbe Schrick joined his three older siblings in the production of “Honk!” in Colby.

Cameron said it is not unusual for entire families to participate.

This year, all but one of Mike and Shandi Sayre’s sons appeared in the Atwood production of “Aladdin.”

Shandi Sayer is one of many parents in the community who go the extra mile to help out backstage during performances.

“We are always grateful for the help of parents and other volunteers, especially during performance weeks when all hands are on deck putting the finishing touches on a show,” said Pratt.

To learn by practise

Student interns are funded by the organization Nex-Generation Round Up for Youth and they still enjoy preparing for the productions, but in a different role.

“It’s a lot more complicated than I thought,” said Hailey Vaughn, a rising senior at Hoxie High School this fall.

Vaughn interned this year after performing for five years.

“I learned so much about how the show is made behind the scenes,” she said.

Vaughn is considering studying nursing when she goes to college in two years. She said she will take valuable life lessons from the summer theater festivals with her, no matter what career path she chooses.

“I learned how to work with many different age groups and how to communicate with them,” she said. “It was a great experience. When you work together like this, you build a big family. And once a year we get together with that family.”

Intern Tori Rucker has been involved with the summer festival since she was ten years old.

Rucker graduated from Fort Hays State University in 2024 and will begin her professional career in education this fall as a sixth grade science and social studies teacher in Russell.

Rucker said that like Vaughn, she has learned many life lessons.

“I really developed my classroom management skills through the festival and how I want to be a teacher,” she said. “You can have strict expectations but still have fun.”

One of the many duties of an intern is building sets for the productions. Rucker has a real talent for that skill, which she learned from her father, Ed, when she helped him in the past.

This year, Rucker added a new task to her summer duties, directing the Quinter production of “Shrek The Musical.”

As the 2024 summer season draws to a close, Rucker realized that teaching has many similarities to directing a play.

“Everything I learned in school about teaching, I was able to put into practice here,” she said. “This summer was a breeze with the kids.”

Cameron moved to Chicago about a year ago, but promises to return every summer to help direct shows at the musical theater festival in his home state.

She said she was “bursting at the seams” when she watched “Shrek The Musical” at Quinter over the weekend of July 13 and 14.

“Tori has grown up with us and this summer she’s done it all,” Cameron said. “It’s been so rewarding to see how she’s taken to what we do so well and loves it. Shrek was phenomenal. I was so proud of her.”

The season will conclude with the performance “Alice in Wonderland” on August 2 and 3 in Oakley.

“We are so grateful to everyone who made this summer’s theater festival possible,” Pratt said. “The hard work and talent that these amazing kids give us all summer long — plus a sprinkle of blessings from the theater gods — continues to culminate in ever-better performances each year.”

For more information about the Main Street Arts Council and to view photos from past performances, visit www.mainstreetartscouncil.com.