Two theaters, a handful of dance studios, a cafe, a gift store and a digital editing room; all for children. At the tips of their hands, children have everything that concerns the arts they have ever wanted, needed, or said they wanted but really didn’t after a week or so. Imagination Stage has been around for 25 years, but not to this extent.
Imagination Stage began in 1979 in a small classroom in the Whittier Woods Center. A decade ago, it was based in White Flint Mall in a one-room studio, with about twelve students per session. There were people willing to go the extra mile for children’s arts, but they did not have the funds for an center — until May 2003, when the organization moved into its new $12 million Bethesda facility.
“THE ARTS ARE GROSSLY misunderstood,” said Janet Stanford, artistic director at Imagination Stage. “The natural instinct is to assume the arts are all about commercial endeavors. But we are not about that. We are about building the love of art but most importantly, a better understanding of the world.”
Love of the arts rings true throughout. The atmosphere is strongly influenced by young ones from ages 1 to 18. Up to fourth grade, the curriculum includes the basic theater arts as well as understanding "the world around you.”
“We are here not so much to make little kids into little performers and Broadway stars,” said Marketing Director Laurie Levy-Page, "but to bring out the creativity in every child.”
Fifth grade and older is when the specific artistic areas are studied.
Imagination Stage offers programs specifically designed for honing dance skills. The "All That Dance" four-week summer camp gives children the chance to gain an understanding of basic dance skills, with a guest teacher each Friday. Veronika Fargas, a Hungarian native currently completing her Bachelor of Arts in dance at University of Maryland, College Park, will head the dance department.
A filmmaking camp, offered for grades five through twelve, is offered to those who wish to specialize in movie-making. Using all digital equipment, children get the chance to make their own movie in an 18-day intensive day camp offered over the summer. There is also a clay and flash animation camp, which entails the fundamentals of basic animation. At the end of each session, every student will receive a DVD of all the students’ work.
Every summer, Imagination Stage offers the audition-only Midsummer Shakespeare Company. Only 21 students were chosen for this year’s production of “Macbeth,” which runs July 22-24 after a five-week camp involving script analysis, dance, combat and stage movement.
NOT ONLY DOES Imagination Stage offer a way to learn and understand the arts, but children also get the chance to be with others with the same interests. "I have been interested in dance since I was two years old", said dance student Andi Jones, 12, of Pyle Middle School. "I like spending time with other kids with the same interests as me."
Not only are there summer camps offered, but an array of student and professional plays being performed weekly. Professional plays are shown for weeks at hand like such plays as “Bunnicula: Adventures of the Vampire Bunny”, Sept. 25-Nov. 7,
or “Petite Rouge,” a Cajun version of “Little Red Riding Hood” set in Louisiana, showing from Feb. 5-April 3, 2005.
All the professional plays are shown in the larger, 400-seat theater. There is also a sound-proof room for those children who have trouble sitting through an entire show.
Student shows are performed in the smaller theater, seating about 150 people. Because the students are not professional actors, being in a smaller venue “seems a little easier on their nerves,” said Stanford.