Website: Stage Door Conservatory Phone: 510-521-6250
STAGE DOOR CONSERVATORY was founded in 1999 by Gina Scher and Debbie Grossman as an
outgrowth of the Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center's OnStage program. We offer a variety
of programs in musical theater to children in the 3rd through 12th grade. These programs include
Kids On Stage, On Broadway, Teens On Stage and BackStage. In 2006, we will also begin
offering a Spring session of On Broadway at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts at 2640
College Avenue in Berkeley.
As a part of On Broadway, Teens On Stage and Kids On Stage, we offer instruction in acting, vocal
and dance technique, as well as the design and construction of stage sets and props. Teenagers that
desire an intensive, but briefer experience can participate in our new five-week Teens On Stage
program and gain invaluable experience as a member of a small ensemble in rehearsing and performing
a full-scale Broadway play. Through Backstage, we offer an up to eight week paid internship in
theater production to 10th - 12th graders.
All of our programs offer a performance component as a culminating experience. Both On Broadway and
Teens On Stage present fully staged Broadway productions for three days each summer - both at the
Julia Morgan Center. Productions of Kids On Stage are generally performed at the Epworth Community
Church in North Berkeley. Our Backstage apprentices are integrally involved in all our productions.
Stage Door was developed as a conservatory to provide our participants with an intensive experience
of the theater arts that combines not only drama, but music, dance, costuming and stage, set and prop
design and production and simulates, as much as possible, the life of a thriving community theater.
Although many of our participants are committed actors, many who have developed and matured as
performers through exposure to our programs, we also welcome children with no experience in theater,
curious to explore or cultivate their interests in the theater arts.
In addition to the training and rehearsal activities that are featured as a regular component of our
program, each participant is offered personalized coaching from our instructors and apprentices to
help him or her reach her or his own goals for our program.
Other than On Broadway, which generally has 25 - 30 participants, most of our programs/sessions include
no more than 22 children. This helps ensure that we can provide the highest caliber of training and
support to our enrollees, so that their experience of Stage Door is as optimal as possible. Since we
nurture the development of a cohort among the young persons in our programs, they also actively support
and mentor one another.
Although the Conservatory includes persons with different levels of experience and talent, and from
varied socio-economic backgrounds and communities, we stress the importance of cooperation and respect,
engage in many activities that rely upon the participation of the entire cohort, and value each member's
contributions equally.
We also engage our participants in activities that require problem-solving and decision making, so that
in addition to training in the theater arts, they have the opportunity to develop skills that will help
them succeed both as school and in their family and community lives, and in their futures as adults.
Stage Door Conservatory is directed by Simon Kaplan and Heather Raines with the assistance of General
Manager Rawna Romero and a staff of five artist educators representing the fields of music, dance,
costume design and stage, set and prop design. Our curriculum and programs incorporates best practices
in theater and arts education, as well as standards established by the American Camp Association, in
which we are a member.
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