{"id":186097,"date":"2026-03-10T19:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186097\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T19:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:37:07","slug":"papermap-theater-co-opens-near-howard-middle-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/186097\/","title":{"rendered":"PaperMap Theater &#038; Co. opens near Howard Middle School"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new children\u2019s rehearsal-centered theater studio and performance space has opened in the Thornton Park District. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.papermaptheater.com\/about\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PaperMap Theater &amp; Co.<\/a> is located at 2 N. Summerlin Avenue in the former Artifact Candle Foundry, just a few blocks from the <a href=\"https:\/\/howardms.ocps.net\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Howard Middle School Academy of Arts<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>Founder and Artistic Director Richie Akers, originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, relocated to Orlando in 2019, bringing years of theater experience to downtown Orlando. He and his family live close by in the Lake Eola Heights neighborhood.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe studio is for children ages 10 to 17,\u201d Akers said. \u201cKids work more on telling the story in an informal space, rather than reaching a huge audience. As [the acting industry] moves more towards film and television productions, this type of theater lends itself well [to those genres].\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>In the black box theater students will learn costuming, sound design, light design and, of course, acting, but with minimal sets. There is no backstage, so family and friends who come to watch performances will witness the entire production, front and backstage.\n<\/p>\n<p>Four productions have already been announced: \u201cThe Outsiders,\u201d \u201cPuffs\u201d (a Harry Potter\u2013themed play), \u201cShe Kills Monsters\u201d and Kate Hamill\u2019s \u201cPride &amp; Prejudice.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re really excited to participate in creating community arts,\u201d Akers said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-47605\" class=\"wp-image-47605 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/PaperMap-Theater-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"a man stands in a black box theater\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-47605\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PaperMap Theater &amp; Co. is a new rehearsal-centered theater studio and performance space for children. Founder and Artistic Director Richie Akers previously ran a similar business in Iowa. (LOGAN LAMPHERE)<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new children\u2019s rehearsal-centered theater studio and performance space has opened in the Thornton Park District. PaperMap Theater&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-186097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}