For current Summer Stage students Karthik Malickel Ramakrishnan, 16, and Amalyah Callahan, 17, the program has transformed them on and off stage.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSummer Stage just makes you feel so happy and like so goal oriented, in a sense,\u201d Malickel Ramakrishnan said. \u201cBecause you have to put on a show in three weeks, you have to work together, but you also want to have fun and spend time with each other.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He said the program \u201cgives you a new way to think about community and even performing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never one individual or one lead character or one person in the ensemble,\u201d Malickel Ramkrishnan said. \u201cIt\u2019s everyone working together as a full group. And I think Summer Stage really focuses on community rather than individualism.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
Callahan said her Summer Stage experience is informing her college search.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to always be looking for that kind of community that Summer Stage has given me,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s no way to replace this kind of community, but it\u2019s something I\u2019m always going to look for when I go on college visits. I will always be looking for that sense of home that I have at Summer Stage \u2026 I\u2019m going to be looking to connect with people, looking to find that kind of connection. And I wouldn\u2019t be looking for that without Summer Stage.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
She said the program has broadened her artistic and personal horizons.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it forces you to be uncomfortable, but that is such an important thing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt forces you to put yourself on stage in front of these big, sold-out audiences. It forces you to meet new people because there\u2019s so many people to meet, and there\u2019s so many people of different backgrounds. It forces you to get out of your comfort zone just the right way \u2026 so that you find yourself and you have so many opportunities to become a leader.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Success beyond Summer Stage<\/p>\n
Dietzler said the program has had a lasting impact on the children and young people over the past 50 years. It counts among its alumni several famous people in show business, including Tina Fey, Monica Horan<\/a> and David Corenswet, star of the new \u201cSuperman\u201d movie. Other former students have gone on to apply what they\u2019ve learned about set and lighting design and tech theater to full-time careers backstage, Dietzler said.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of jobs in my life but directing children\u2019s theater at Upper Darby Summerstage might have been my favorite,\u201d Fey said in a statement. \u201cPutting up shows with sixty kids that then would be seen by five hundred little kids every morning \u2013 we were really providing something fun and wholesome to the community.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Corenswet said in a statement that he made close friends while performing at Upper Darby Summer Stage, and learned a \u201cvaluable lesson\u201d about enjoying the process.\n<\/p>\n \u201cDream of the leading role, compete hard for it, then let it go and enjoy the chorus,\u201d he said. \u201cDance your feet off in the ensemble. You may have your solo moments center stage in life, but if you\u2019re lucky, you\u2019ll spend most of your time surrounded by a chorus of friends and family, singing in harmony together. The culture, the leadership, and the people of Summer Stage instilled that truth in us \u2014 and continue to remind us, summer after summer.\u201d\n<\/p>\n For Dietzler, some of the most important alumni stories come from former students who shared how Summer Stage helped them develop careers in other industries.\n<\/p>\n \u201cOne year we did a show called \u2018Inherit the Wind\u2019, and it was two lawyers arguing on stage,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd one of the lawyers told me later, as an actor, he was a lawyer, he became a lawyer, and he said the first case that I ever tried was on that stage.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Dietzler recalled a nurse who was able to connect with a patient through a song she had learned at Summer Stage, and alumni who are now teachers who told him they apply the performing skills they learned in the program in the classroom every day.\n<\/p>\n For the organization\u2019s 50th season celebration, more than 175 of those alumni are returning to put on a show Friday and Saturday nights<\/a> highlighting some of the best productions in the theater\u2019s history.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a night for alumni to reminisce and get together, but it\u2019s also for the community to kind of celebrate what\u2019s been for 50 years and to look forward and say we want to support it for the next 50 years,\u201d Dietzler said.\n<\/p>\n Tickets are available for the weekend 50th anniversary performance<\/a>. Summer Stage will have several other productions<\/a> throughout the summer that community members can purchase tickets to attend.\n<\/p>\n Celia Bernhardt contributed to this story.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note: This story is part of a series that explores the impact of creativity on student learning and success. WHYY and this series are supported by the Marrazzo Family Foundation, a foundation focused on fostering creativity in Philadelphia youth, which is led by Ellie and Jeffrey Marrazzo. WHYY News produces independent, fact-based news content for audiences in Greater Philadelphia, Delaware and South Jersey.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For current Summer Stage students Karthik Malickel Ramakrishnan, 16, and Amalyah Callahan, 17, the program has transformed them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1482,1483,147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-creativity-sparks-success","tag-theater","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}