Above: Payton Wendt, left, and Harmony Sutphin paint styrofoam bricks during a recent Youth Theater Workshop class at the Fairmont Opera House.

FAIRMONT– Fairmont Opera House’s new Youth Theater Workshop classes aim to show all of the different areas in theater that someone can be involved in.

Samantha Roseberg is the technical director at the Opera House, as well as the Fairmont Area Community Theater (FACT) coordinator. She’s also heading up the Youth Theater Workshops.

Rosenberg said it started in October and they’ll be meeting once a month through May. The workshop is open to youth in kindergarten through 12th grade.

She said that the classes take place in three sections. Youth grades kindergarten through 2nd go from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m; 3rd grade through 5th grade goes from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.; 6th grade through 12th grade is 11 a.m. to noon.

Rosenberg said they broke it up into sections because the different ages are likely at different experience levels.

“I know a twelfth grader isn’t going to want to sit alongside a kindergartener. This way they can work alongside their peers,” Rosenberg said.

She said that youth can sign up beforehand for all of the classes or sign up for a couple. She shared that walk-ins are also welcome. It’s $10 per class but Rosenberg said scholarships are available upon request.

“We’re trying to offer more theater education-based classes so people know what else is available through theater aside from acting,” Rosenberg explained.

She said it’s something Executive Director Blake Potthoff has been wanting to do for awhile, but Covid-19 put a damper on plans over the past year and a half. Rosenberg said now felt like a good time to start up the program.

The first class went over costumes and this month was all about props. Rosenberg said Jay and Tamarae Schmidt, who do the props for community theater, volunteered their time to help instruct the class and also brought some supplies.

Rosenberg said class participants painted styrofoam “bricks.” She said some made them into pets or cake. They also made slime.

Future classes will go over caroling, dance, sound, lighting, playwriting and set creation.

Rosenberg said the classes have been well-attended so far and especially popular with the grades 3 through 5 age group. She said the grades 6 through 12 section has been smaller and thinks it’s because for so long the Opera Houses’s program was called children’s theater, whereas now it’s youth theater.

Rosenberg said she hopes that through the program they can find some kids who fall in love with different areas of theater. She shared that she went to college for theater without much experience in lighting or sound or set-making but developed an appreciation for it there.

“Our hope is that it gets them interested not only in acting, but the tech stuff because it’s super important and I think a lot of people forget that,” Rosenberg said.

She also touched on the many benefits of theater, saying it helps with self-confidence and can provide job opportunities.

“I’m hoping it helps kids. I hope it helps people realize it’s more than just a hobby,” Rosenberg said.

The next Youth Theater Workshop will take place on Saturday, Dec. 18.

Just as the workshop classes are separated into three age groups, Rosenberg said starting this next summer, the youth theater will also be done in three different age groups with each group putting on their own show. And after the first of the year, the Opera House plans to offer an adult theater workshop that will take place each month