Web Host Is Down

SCP friends and supporters,

Our web host, VIZAWEB, is down and emails sent to @thesantaclaritaplayhouse.org can’t be accessed. For contacting Jason email him at santa_clarita_playhouse at yahoo dot com.

Now In Production

Daytime Emmy Winner to Play Queen of Hearts!

Award winning actress Beth Maitland is set to play the Queen of Hearts in Santa Clarita Playhouse’s first audio production, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Once production is complete, Alice will be available for MP3 download.

No stranger to radio-on-stage, last December Beth played Mrs. Cratchet in SCP’s production of A Christmas Carol.  “I’ve loved participating in their live performances” stated Ms. Maitland recently.  With an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her long standing portrayal of Traci Abbott on CBS TV’s “The Young and the Restless” (Upcoming episodes featuring Beth are September 29th & 30th).  She returned to the boards in a recent production and tour of “Anything Goes” as Reno Sweeney, and is thrilled to be “working out as a singer again.”
She is no stranger to the stage, from which her early experience was earned in over 80 productions and revues ranging from Shakespeare to Rodgers and Hammerstein. Roles like Helena in “A Midsummer Nights’ Dream”, Penny in “You Can’t Take It With You”, Mrs. Antrobus in “Skin of our Teeth”, and Pacquette in “Candide” are particular favorites. Two years with a Lyric Opera Theater fleshed out her music comedy experience, and a recent sign language production at Deaf West Theater of “‘Night, Mother” won her a role with Richard Dreyfus in the film “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”
Other highlights of her career were working with Carol Burnett and Hal Holbrook in an ABC special production of “Plaza Suite”, an opera singing episode of “Love American Style” with Tony Dow, and a daring appearance on “Circus of the Stars” atop giant Percheron circus horses doing balletic and acrobatic tricks and resin-back riding.
An avid animal lover, Beth volunteers for a number of animal placement and rescue organizations, and lives outside of Los Angeles with her own menagerie…horses, goats, bunnies, chickens, and dogs.

When asked about her continuing involvement with Santa Clarita Playhouse, Beth said “I’m having a great time exploring new challenges with an innovative and creative theater company”.

Auditions for Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland

The Santa Clarita Playhouse is currently holding auditions for an audio drama production of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland. Lewis Carol’s timeless classic has been adapted for download as an MP3. Click HERE for further details.

Public Schools’ Arts Programs Leave An Unfinished Canvas

California State PTA Members Please Read

Recently the California State PTA posted a report on the health of K-12 Arts Education. Entitled An Unfinished Canvas, the report summarizes current strengths and weaknesses in arts instruction. Some highlights include:

• State law requires that the adopted course of study for all students in grades 1 through 6 include instruction in music, visual arts, theatre, and dance, but only 10% of elementary schools meet this requirement.”

• Nearly half of California’s elementary students are not receiving any standards-aligned instruction in music and visual arts, and more than four in five are not receiving any standards-aligned instruction in theatre and dance.




• Most elementary classroom teachers have received minimal pre-service training in arts education and thus are typically not well prepared to provide standards-based arts instruction in the four arts disciplines. Those classroom teachers who feel most prepared to teach the arts typically have a background in one or more arts disciplines and/or have received some sort of external support, such as professional development in the arts. However, few classroom teachers receive any such support—86% of elementary schools offered no arts-related professional development in 2005-06.

• Under the category of barriers affecting participation and intensity many, “Elementary school principals reported greater challenges from both insufficient instructional time and a focus on improving test scores”.

• Parent group funding was the most common of these community sources, with 35% of all principals reporting that it was a “top” or “significant” source of funding. One survey respondent described the large role that parent funding played in supporting the school’s arts program: “Our parent organization bears the bulk of the responsibility [for funding] all arts instruction.”

To learn how we can partner with your organization and bring in standards based instruction in theatre, visit our Shake Hands with Shakespeare page.

SCP Gallery

The Bard is in the house

During the past 2 1/2 years Shake Hands with Shakespeare has been engaging thousands of students in classroom and grade level assemblies. Using a modular design, to allow for easy customization of content, Shakespeare brings youngsters into the world of 16th century England under Elizabeth I. Vivid pictures and content presented in PowerPoint, along with personal anecdotes and stories, bring to life the Bard of Avon and establishes connections between the young people of today and of Tudor England.

Shake Hands With Shakespeare

Our Shakespeare visits your school

Have you ever seen your students almost dozing off automatically whenever you talk about “Shakespeare”? Have they developed an aversion to a long-dead playwright? Let us help them to overcome their Shakesfear by introducing the Bard as a living breathing person, who will engage your students with conversation,

stories and anecdotes about his growing up, career choice and family life, in ways to relate today’s students to Shakespeare during Elizabethan England.

Shake Hands with Shakespeare ^TM brings the magic of interactive live theater to the classroom. All we need is a schoolroom and your students. Our William Shakespeare, the star of this one-man-show, will also interact with the audience to perform a few scenes from his plays*. During this encounter, your students will not only become familiar with the Bard, but also with historical back-ground and his texts. *Can be custom tailored to fit the class curriculum.

A Christmas Carol

Santa Clarita Playhouse presented two radio-on-stage performances of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Westfield Valencia Town Center Mall on December 22, 2007.

Let Shakespeare Teach Your Class

Have you ever seen your students almost dozing off automatically whenever you talk about “Shakespeare”? Have they developed an aversion to a long-dead playwright? Let us help them to overcome their Shakesfear by introducing the Bard as a living breathing person, who will engage your students with conversation, stories and anecdotes about his growing up, career choice and family life, in ways to relate today’s students to Shakespeare during Elizabethan England. Follow the link for more information on our student outreach program Shake Hands with Shakespeare.

Call 661.799.5953 for details and booking rates.