About NGT’s Children’s Programs

Next Generation Theatre’s chidren’s program began the summer of 2007, with the key idea that “Great oaks from little acorns grow.” Owner Tracey Marceron founded the program with the help of her daughter, Lexi Marceron, and her friend James Bartol. While they were still in high school, the two visualized what it could be, and started building little by little. The first theatre class was taught in June of that year with only 6 kids. Our theatre opened on August 17, 2007 with our first public performance. This first musical production, with a cast of 15 local children was Wind in the Willows. Since then we have grown to involve more than 200 kids in our theatre program.

The skills both Lexi and James gained by having such an integral part of the vision and execution of this program is what inspires us to have young, aspiring directors take on leadership roles with our theatre program. At Next Generation Theatre, our goal is to make theatre accessible to as many young people as possible. We strongly believe that involvement in the arts at an early age is very beneficial. We want our students to leave our theatre program with higher confidence and new skills. Above all, we want to encourage all of the kids who walk through our doors to: “Dream big”!

Our children’s theater program is open to kids from ages 4 1/2 through 19, and is great for building self confidence and making new friends. Each session runs several weeks and ends with a spectacular show open for the entire community to enjoy. Each child learns many skills that will help with all future goals, and is an experience that will last a lifetime. This program is uniquely led by teen directors, all of whom are highly motivated, natural-born leaders with high levels of talent and years of experience in dancing, singing, choreography, set design, and costuming. The teen directors make our program special, as they are able to bond and relate to kids in a way that adult directors can’t, inspiring the younger students to visualize themselves as the next teen leaders. We strongly believe that “one generation shall teach it to another.” All theatre productions take place in the Next Generation Theatre.