Mission Statement
Creative
Kids Playhouse Children's Theatre of Orange County is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit
organization committed to offering opportunities for children to
experience the joy and fun of performing in a musical, and opportunities
for the community to experience entertaining children's theater performances.
Our excellent instructors are professionals in drama, dance and voice, intent
on creating a fun, nurturing environment where kids can flourish.
Background Statement
Founded in 2011 by Elizabeth Ramirez, Executive Director,
and Michele Sheehy-Bowren, Artistic Director, Creative Kids Playhouse
Children’s Theatre of Orange County was created to serve a need to provide
children with theater opportunities and instruction that focused on personal
growth and enjoyment, providing an alternative to existing theater programs
designed to prepare children for professional theater careers. We are an education-based organization. Our most important core value is that the children in the cast have fun, learn new skills, and gain self-confidence. Musical theatre provides opportunities to improve skills related to reading, memorization, public speaking, problem-solving, and teamwork, all within an environment of music, imagination and fun. Michele first fell in love with the theatre with her first role at the age of ten. Dozens of roles in musical theatre later, Michele graduated with a BFA from the prestigious theatre program at University of California, Irvine. She went on to perform on stage in New York City, Germany, Switzerland, onboard the msWesterdam, and regionally throughout the United States. Michele designs musical theatre programs for children that are fun, nurturing, organized and creative. She creates safe opportunities for kids to challenge themselves, express themselves, and execute a performance of which they are truly proud. While Elizabeth has always enjoyed the arts, she earned an Engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon University. After having children she decided to change her career focus to be more child-centric, and now uses her experience of working within the demanding field of engineering to manage the operations of CKP. Skills that served her well in her prior career are now used to manage the logistics of every production, including securing venues, marketing of performances, communicating with customers, designing and creating sets, and overseeing administrative operations. In four years CKP has rapidly expanded its base, beginning with a two-act production with 27 children in 2011 to having grown to serving over 1200 children in 27 productions annually by 2015. Creative Kids Playhouse is committed to hiring highly qualified instructors with music and drama backgrounds, and maintaining high staffing ratios to keep all kids engaged during their time spent with CKP. All instructors are trained to work with the philosophy of putting the child’s individual development first.
Impact Statement
Creative Kids Playhouse has given children increased
exposure to the arts as schools have been reducing instructional time spent on
the arts. Participating in musical theater is a gift that will pay dividends for life. Not only will the children have wonderful memories to last a lifetime from this musical, but they will have improved skills in singing, dancing, communicating, memorization, and teamwork. Be it pitching their start-up idea to investors, leading a business meeting, toasting at a friend's wedding, standing up for their own children at a PTA meeting, or continuing to participate in theater, children will be able to take the skills and confidence gleaned during their time in our programs well into adulthood. Children benefit from CKP programs with improvement in the following life skills and attributes: Teamwork: Each child’s individual performance is reliant on others doing their part. Memorization skills: Each child receives a solo speaking part and is included in numerous choral ensembles. Self-confidence: Lead roles are rotated among different children from production to production. This gives the opportunity to more children to receive a substantial part, while exposing repeat enrollees to different types of roles. Creative thinking: Each child needs to consider his or her role from the viewpoint of the character. Children gain even more opportunity for creative thinking during Immersion Camp Programs as they are included in set design and character development. In addition, participation helps with schoolwork. A UCLA study of 25,000 students shows that Theatre Arts improves all academic performance. Standardized test scores increase 65 points on the verbal component, and even 35 points on math and science.
Needs Statement
Creative Kids Playhouse has three immediate needs that it is looking for support from the public to address. Creative Kids aims to keep student program costs affordable to allow the program to be accessible to all children. For those families that cannot afford the fees, Creative Kids offers a scholarship program. In order to continue this mission, Creative Kids needs $50,000 in annual support to cover all program and operational costs not covered by student fees and tickets sales. Available theater space for performances has been difficult to find. Creative Kids was able to lease office and warehouse space beginning in 2014, but it is limited in size to storage and part-time administrative use only to keep rent costs low. Creative Kids would welcome donations of theater and meeting space in South and Central Orange County. Creative Kids relies on volunteers to assist with our children's productions. We welcome volunteers to assist with set building, sewing and altering costumes, and ushering at performances. Use of moving vans and trucks are also needed to transport sets and equipment between the warehouse and the performance venue.
Geographic Areas Served
Creative Kids Playhouse currently serves the Southern and Central Orange County areas between Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano. We are available to expand to areas in Northern Orange County if we are able to secure facility space for rehearsals and performances.
Top Three Populations Served
Latinos
Asian Americans Native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders (AANHPI)
Statement from the CEO/Executive Director
--
Statement from the Board Chair/President
--
