The Raising the Curtain Foundation and selected teachers taught students from fourth to sixth grade at the Newhall Family Theatre how to bring the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” to life at their biannual workshop on Saturday.
“The story is often used to teach children about the dangers of talking to strangers and the importance of staying safe,” said Nickie DeTolve, board member of the Raising the Curtain Foundation.
Rather than teaching the students to play Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, they gave them the resources to put on the production from an off-stage perspective.
Groups of students, separated by the names of popular Broadway productions, traveled from room to room to learn from professionals about directing, blocking, set design, props, costumes, hair and makeup, lighting and sound.
Kim Pearlman, president of the Raising the Curtain Foundation, credited the city of Santa Clarita as a part of why the workshop was possible.
The city provided the Raising the Curtain Foundation with a community service arts grant. Due to this grant, students were able to be provided with a bag filled with essentials in order to thrive in the offstage environment.
Parent Leena Arora signed her daughter up for the workshop as a way to fill her daughter’s ever-growing creative spirit.
“Since she was little, I’ve been trying to give her exposure to any and every sort of thing and when I got this email, I wanted my daughter to have this kind of exposure,” said Arora. “She wants to be an artist when she grows up. She’s not decided what kind of artist, just to get exposure.”
Pearlman herself has a daughter involved in the arts, specifically an actress.
“I love actors, but they couldn’t do what they do without what we’re going to show you today,” said Pearlman. “Without them, actors would just be walking aimlessly on this stage, an empty stage in whatever they walked in. Without the customers and the lighting people and the sound people and their director and the costumers, without them, none of this magic happens. So we’re bringing that magic to you today and you’ve become part of that magic.”
