I had the absolute pleasure and privilege to help assemble a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Stagecrafters Youth Theatre, my original artistic home in Pepper Pike, Ohio. Like so many, I found my artistic voice and my artistic joy in this program that is rooted in the building of confidence and community through musical theatre. The celebration culminated in a performance featuring more than 100 alumni at the State Theatre, part of Cleveland’s Playhouse Square, which I co-directed with Jamie Koeth with music direction by Jared Stein, on August 19, 2024.
Broadway alumni Jordan Brown, Max Chernin, Hannah Delmonte, Ben Fankhauser, David Holbert, Andrew Kober, Halle Morse, Robb Sapp, Elena Shaddow, and Jason Weston performed songs from their childhoods, their professional careers, and from the Stagecrafters vault, while a chorus with decades of alumni shared some favorites. About three dozen speakers told the story of the program and shared the ways in which the program shaped their lives, both on- and off-stage. Current participants and students also joined the alumni for a number of songs to show that we are indeed a family!
Most importantly, we were able to honor program founder Loe Goldwasser with a scholarship named in her honor (funded by her family) and current director Wendy Scott-Koeth with a rehearsal studio named after her. Their work shaped so many generations of artists (and humans) and it meant so much to create a way to acknolwedge and celebrate them both with the community they built!\
