Mother-daughter duo brings acting skills to kids

When Neicole and Megan Woodall began their journey into acting, neither one ever dreamed that it would lead them to their own acting studio. But after a few years of considering the "what ifs," they decided to begin their own children's theatre and Genesis Theatre was born.

"Once we had the idea and took the leap of faith, it was crazy how many doors flew open - weird universe stuff that was happening to let us know that yes, this is the right thing for us to be doing right now," Megan said. "It's amazing to see that every step we take leads to another open door. It's amazing to see how many people are behind us."

This mother-daughter acting duo has a combined history of 18 years in the spotlight of the theater and knows a thing or two about hitting their mark.

"You have to understand we have been in theater for 18 years and have been around the block a few times," Neicole said. "Through trial and error, we have seen what works and what doesn't work. From there, we basically set out our guidelines for what we felt was good theater."

Megan agreed.

"We have the best of both worlds - the best programming, teachers and time slots," Megan said. "You have to be careful with time, but that comes from knowing your community."

These two know their community. With only one week of preparation, asking families if they would be interested in placing their children in a one-week acting camp, the two were able to offer their first summer acting camp.

"It was amazing, because we had such a quick turnaround," Megan said. "We literally asked one week if people wanted to do this, and a week later we did it. We had more than 60 people in the audience just to watch our small one-week camp's production."

With turnarounds like that, it would seem that there would be an unstoppable insatiability to do more, but Neicole said they are trying to stay grounded and realistic.

"Right now, we just want to get ourselves up and running," Megan said. "We want to feed as many kids as we can, and sometimes it's hard to keep your feet on the ground. You think five years down the road, 'Oh, we want to do this.' We are brand-new. From January to now, it is really quite amazing that we have a board of directors, programs and classes already running."

As far as adding to the programming, Megan said, "We are just taking it how it comes."

"You have to figure out who we are in the community, and we are listening to that," Megan said. "We are giving people what they want but also what they need."

Genesis Theatre currently offers classes to several skill sets. For grades 1-2, Genesis offers the Magic Treasure Box, which, according to their website, boasts that each class time students will open the box to find a book and a theme.

"When I was living in New York, I had an idea to come up with the magic treasure box," Megan said. "I thought, 'What if we had this box that contained something new every week?' For example, let's say that week the theme was 'pirate,' and inside the box was a book about pirates, complete with costumes that would be new every week. It's playtime, but you get the chance to act out a book, create a beginning, middle and end with conflict and solution, characters and setting - all the things you need to make a mini play. It's theater without them even knowing. Theater is lots of people running around with their imaginations."

Other classes include beginning acting classes and intermediate performing classes for third through fifth grade, single cast intensive performing class for sixth grade and up, with fifth graders accepted with approval.

"Fortunately for us, we have a background of being involved in it and basically the day-to-day administration of it to costuming to teaching art," Neicole said. "Megan came up from being a student, learned to become an equity actress in national tours, and came back to take her skill sets and impart that knowledge to these children."

Both women agreed that the programs would not become a "star search" type of program, only looking for the "best."

"We are not the kind of people or program that feels that 'if you're not the next star you need to get out of here,'" Megan said. "We enjoy everyone. If it's not your cup of tea, then that's fine -- come have some fun with us."

Neicole emphasized the importance of an audition and has recently added a crash-course audition class to the program.

"A lot of people don't understand that there is a learning process when it comes to auditioning," Neicole said. "It's not just getting up and singing and dancing. There is a lot to learn about auditions and improving your skill sets. We are offering an auditions workshop before we have our main auditions to help students tailor their auditions."

Megan concurred.

"We need to teach our kids that if you are serious and audition for shows, you need to know what to expect," Megan said. "That's why the free workshop is so important. They can brush up on their skills, book a private 30-minute coaching and critique session with me where they can show what they have chosen and go over any bumps before they audition for real."

The most exciting classes, according to Megan, are the skills classes.

"It's so much fun to see brand-new kids get their first acting experience light up," Megan said. "I personally, as an actor, love taking those skill classes, because you learn so much about yourself. It's fun to explore the depths of your mind and emotional soul."

During the skill classes, students get one-on-one time to work on their specific skill. Although the students learn their fair share at Genesis, Megan and Neicole said they have both learned even more about children.

"What I have learned the most is that everything that we do right now sticks with a child," Megan said. "I am starting to see kids that I taught when they were in fourth grade, and now they are in high school; and what you do matters to them, and they remember it and it impacts their lives. Seeing my former students grow up has really hit home. Everything you say to someone matters; you must be careful with them because they are precious and vulnerable."

Neicole agreed, adding, "Children are sponges."

"Whether they tell you or not they want to learn, they want to be a part of something bigger than they thought they could dream of," Neicole said. "The magic of bringing to fruition a group of children and make something beautiful and organic and an expression of themselves is the utmost feeling of accomplishment. I have often set back and reflected as a bystander listening to these children before they go on and the family that they have developed. To think that there are so many children who haven't experienced that because they have never really felt like they could, or someone never thought to ask them, or maybe they thought they would be embarrassed, is sad. The one lesson I have learned is that this is an opportunity for children to be something and express themselves in a way they never thought they were capable of."

Although Genesis is a small 501(c)3 tax-exempt company, Neicole said they would be providing some financial aid.

"There is an application on our website," Neicole said. "We don't want a child to not be able to participate just because they can't afford it at the moment. We will have that in our program forever."

For information, visit genesistheatre.org.

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