By Craig Horleman

A one-stop crash course in all things related to the theater world is taking place at Dover’s Patchwork Playhouse courtesy of the Kent County Theatre Guild.

The Apprenticeship Program Theater, of AP Theater, for teens ages 13 to 19 is a free opportunity to get hands-on training and learning as they create a show for the Patchwork stage.

The program focuses on all aspects of theater from stage performance, backstage management, and light and sound. Each cycle takes teens from audition through rehearsals and tech week to a three-show performance consisting of two acts.

The first part is one-act play called “Do-Overs.” Set at a New Orleans restaurant called Papa Jeaux’s, a young man is getting a bite to eat while he ponders what to do with his first commission check. Soon, the restaurant fills up with more customers: four former high school friends who are reconnecting; a new marketing manager from New York meeting his Louisiana boss for the first time; a lonely girl with a lot on her mind; and a charming Southern waitress with hidden problems of her own.

At pivotal moments throughout, the story stops and “rewinds,” giving characters an opportunity to make different choices about what they say or how they act or react.

The second act takes a page from the Guild’s popular Whoopee series, which puts the teens in the driver’s seat to direct, costume and block each of six 10-minute plays, which teens write themselves.

The shows will take place starting Thursday through April 2.

Jeff Bellon, a member of the board of trustees for Kent County Theatre Guild, had the idea for the project about three years ago. COVID hit and the program had to be put on hold. But he eventually brought it to the other board members who approved the plan.

“There are very few opportunities for teens in the Dover area to learn about all aspects of theater,” Mr. Bellon said.

“You can go down to Milford, Georgetown or Milton but there is really nothing for kids in this older age group to do around here. The Children’s Theatre is great but this puts teens working with kids strictly their own age. So I thought this would be a great way to get them started and it’s really working out well so far.”

W.J. Walton, a fixture for Milford’s Second Street Players, is the supervising director of the show with 17-year-old Emma Holston as the assistant director.

“Jeff wanted to start a program here, a youth program, but not necessarily a children’s program, because there are other children’s programs in the area,” Mr. Walton said.

“The concept being a team program where we launch it, and then from this point on, the teens take over and they do the full directing. They do lights, sound. So it’s almost like a mentoring program. We show them this is what happens. This is how we do it. This is how we paint a set and then you take it from here.”

Sundays have been devoted to construction of a set, painting the set and sound and lights while Tuesdays and Thursdays have been for doing the actual stage work.

“I don’t want them to just hear Bill (Walton) all the time or me. So people reached out said, ‘Hey, I’m really interested. I’ll do the block on construction.’ So they come in and they kind of walk through ‘This is a beam. This is a nail. This is how you use a drill.’ Because some of these kids have never used a drill before,” Mr. Bellon said.

The inaugural class for AP Theater is comprised of 10 teens with nine in the one-act play and Emma helping to direct and then all 10 appearing in two of the six Whoopee plays in the second act.

The teens’ experience range from very little to seasoned veterans who have acted in school and in community theater groups, such as Second Street.

For Chloe Claycomb, 13, of Magnolia, this is her first big part in a show. She plays the restaurant’s waitress Joyce.

“I really love drama — like any type of drama, I love it. And whenever I would watch a movie or anything, I would probably watch it twice or three times and I would memorize those lines. And then I would basically go up into my room say the lines, act it out. And that’s the main reason why I really want to do this,” she said, adding that she’s been having a great time.

“I really like everybody that’s here. They’re very supportive, especially the directors.

Chloe prides herself on the fact she was the first actor get off book, meaning she didn’t need the script anymore. But it’s been a challenge to stay off book.

“It really hard for me to memorize all the lines after how many weeks I’ve been on the script and then trying to memorize it. And when I get off the script now I’m just (asking) Line, Line, Line,’” she said.

Aurora Fennemore, 14, of Wyoming, not only acts in the show but she wrote two of the short plays and if that’s not enough, she designed the menus that are used on stage at Papa Geaux’s.

“I’ve danced since I was little. I’ve taken pottery classes. I generally am interested in the arts,” she said.

One her plays, “The Proposal,” is a comic take on a woman receiving a marriage proposal in a restaurant and her friend who is giving her advice as to whether to accept.

“I think it’s good to be well rounded and just learn different things,” Aurora said.

That’s why she is enjoying AP Theater.

“It was nice that we got to paint the other day since I’m interested in art and stuff. So that was fun to learn a few things. Bill was talking about how theater is three dimensional because you have the painting, the people on stage acting or they could be dancing or they could be singing. It’s a whole bunch of different arts combined. So it’s pretty interesting,” she said.

Helping to bring the whole thing together is Emma Holston, a student at Caesar Rodney High School. Although she has only acted in the theater, she thinks she knows why she was picked to help direct the production.

“There’s some weird blocking for the show. During the cold read (audition), we’re moving all over the place and whatnot. And there’s different chairs and tables. And obviously, when we did the cold read, there wasn’t any of the set. It was just a bunch of chairs in the background not organized at all. And as soon as we got into the cold read, before the scene would start, I’d say ‘OK, guys who wants to come in this way? Do we want to try this positioning? How about we place the chairs like that,’ and just entirely micromanaging it” she said.

“I mean, someone had to. We couldn’t just all stand in random places, you know? So it was necessary.”

Mr. Walton verified that story.

“I saw her energy and thought she’d like to help direct,” he said.

Mr. Bellon jokes that the first night of rehearsal, Emma had 35 minutes worth of notes for the cast.

She said it’s been quite the learning process.

“I never saw myself as someone who would (direct). I’m such a person that likes to instantly apply things to the creative process and instantly edit things. I thought that was really useful with acting, because here’s my product that I have 100 percent control over. All I need is feedback, and I can instantly change it. But I’d never realized how much directing involves changing detail after detail after detail. And that really has been interesting because I’ve been able to see a new vein of production and a new vein of the creative process,” she said.

Mr. Bellon said the hope is the next time they do another session, hopefully in June, the teens can take on a show by themselves with minimal direction by the adults.

“We would be around to help them with what they would need but it would be all up to them,” he said.

“Do-Overs” will be staged Thursday and April 1 at 7 p.m. and April 2 at 3 p.m. at the Patchwork Playhouse, 140 Roosevelt Ave., Dover.

For tickets and information on how to get involved in the next round of AP Theater, visit here.

Tribute to Marley

Spreading the positive vibes of reggae music through soulful, high energy live performances, Spokey Speaky will perform the best of Bob Marley at the Milton Theatre Thursday at 8 p.m.

Playing a wide range of reggae classics from the old school to the new, the goal of the members is to satisfy and entertain reggae fans, while enlightening those who may not have been exposed to the genre otherwise.

They have had opened for many of reggae’s legends including Toots & The Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, The Wailers, Barrington Levy, Beres Hammond, Luciano, Ky-Mani Marley, Easy Star All-Stars, Sister Carol, I-Wayne, The Green, Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad, KRS-One and more.

Tickets are available  here or call the box office at 302-684-3038 for assistance.

The Milton Theatre is at 110 Union St.

Now Showing

New this weekend in theaters is the action-comedy “The Lost City” and the action film “Infinite Storm.”