Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
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NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 42 SEPTEMBER 2019 L I V E + P L AY PHOTOGRAPHS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT BY JASON GROW/COURTESY OF GLOUCESTER STAGE COMPANY, BY DINAH CARDIN, AND BY ELISE SINAGRA Gloucester Stage Company turns 40 this year, celebrating four decades of plays and play wrights. BY DINAH CARDIN ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE here is the youth program," says Dallin. These days, children as young as 5 are taught acting. Programs run in the summer and during the school year go beyond what happens on the stage. In the Gloucester Stage Youth Acting Workshops, kids receive a full professional theatre training experience, including learning sword fighting, playwriting, costuming, lighting, dialects, and stage makeup. Taught by Dallin and guest instructors, the program helps kids build skills in communication, public speaking, teamwork, understanding complex reading, confidence, and on and on. In addition to spots for interns, who receive a stipend from LEAP and complimentary tickets to shows, the organization offers an apprentice program, which has been going on since 2015. Eight recent college grads live together in a house for the summer, and each has a designated role in directing, tech, marketing, and so on as they work on mainstage productions with professionals. Liana Genoud, a recent graduate of In commemorating its 40th anniversary this year, Gloucester Stage Company is celebrating its home port more than ever. With a harbor full of sailboats right out its back door, the rich history of a historic working waterfront all around, and neighbors with countless tales of their own, the theatre is in the perfect position to embrace the community through its rich storytelling. On a recent hot summer morning, students in Gloucester High School's LEAP for Education program gathered at the theatre. There, they learned how to usher, they toured the on-site shop where sets are built, and they discussed marketing strategies for the theatre's production of Alfred Hitchcock's 39 Steps, which ran this past summer. "Now, who wants to walk around with flyers while Nate wears the sandwich board?" asks Heidi Dallin, GSC's education director, who first started volunteering with the company when she was growing up in Gloucester. "The big thing that's changed in the 40 years we've been Emerson College, is the education apprentice. "You get to play different kinds of people and see the world from their view." She has taught A MidSummer Night's Dream to kids and found that Shakespeare really can be accessible to children. "Shakespeare can seem so highbrow, but it's not out of reach." Genoud is especially excited for GSC's fall production of Hamlet, in which the lead role will be played by a woman. "I want to create things, tell stories, and make art," says Genoud, acknowledging the difficulty recent college grads have in getting jobs in their field, especially in the arts. "Here, we get to surround ourselves in a theatre and be constantly around working artists." One of those working artists is Lindsay Crouse, who has made Gloucester her home after performing in the theatre as well as onscreen numerous times. Crouse, whom Dallin calls "our own local Academy Award nominee," is volunteering in the Young Playwrights Festival happening September Students are introduced to acting, set building, lighting, and costuming while working on plays like Alfred Hitchcock's 39 Steps (left). Bottom right, Christopher Griffith with Heidi Dallin.