Very Merry Theatre

Mission:

Building strong, inspired youth and communities through theatre arts.

History:

The Very Merry Theatre began as an exciting idea many years ago as summer camps in Charlotte and Burlington and soon after grew into productions at Edmunds Elementary School where Executive Director, Don Wright, had three boys attending. Soon after we began annual productions at Edmunds Middle School and Orchard Elementary School and experienced the exciting creative possiblities of a whole school community working together to support their children's theaterical efforts. These early original productions served as stepping stones for us to become what we are today: a theater company for children that performs one-of-a-kind plays at schools all over Northwest Vermont, at our own 20 Allen Street studio in Burlington’s Old North End Community Center, and through our Travelling Theater Summer Camps. Our organization has grown over the years and we believe that we are promoting the growth of a vibrant community by providing children of all ages and backgrounds with the opportunity to practice theater. At Very Merry Theatre, we are fostering literary and theater skills, self-confidence, and pride through the work and play that goes into creating theater. We cast without concern for race or ethnicity and often even gender! For most of our productions and camps children are given character groupings from the play and can pick their top three choices. Everyone gets one of these choices and all children eligible by grade for speaking roles get dialogue. The oldest age group in school productions and all children in our camps get the opportunity for a singing solo if they desire one. Our shows are chosen from the classics, mostly, and we adapt a great many ourselves. This allows us to create many meaningful roles rather than just a few starring roles and allows for exploration of the story through themes, ideas, relationships, genres, etc.