Sharon Playhouse’s YouthStage fundraiser spotlights talent with ‘Young at Heart’

Sharon Playhouse’s YouthStage fundraiser spotlights talent with ‘Young at Heart’

A highlight of the “Young at Heart” fundraising event at The Sharon Playhouse on Friday, Dec. 6, was the talented YouthStage performance of Broadway show tunes.

Leila Hawken

SHARON — Hard to imagine that such a thing could be possible, but The Sharon Playhouse managed to underscore the “fun” in “fundraising” with its YouthStage event, one night only, on Friday, Dec. 6.

Guiding the evening held in the Bok theater space was YouthStage Associate Artistic Director Michael Baldwin, who serves a dual role as Education Director. He skillfully presented the fundraising theme while demonstrating the depth of the playhouse’s education program by showcasing the young talent being trained in the performance arts.

Energetic performances were delivered by a talented company of YouthStage performers singing and dancing their way through three Broadway numbers, all three inviting the audience to draw closer to the Sharon Playhouse education program. The final piece from “Oliver” invited the audience to “consider yourself one of us.”

Another highlight of the evening was a fun staged reading of a short play, “Young at Heart,” written by Baldwin and performed by a talented cast of 14 supporting the story of four youngsters and four oldsters, the former enduring school detention and the latter being senior community inhabitants roped into assisting the visiting youngsters with a senior center activity. The outcome is heartwarming and uplifting.

Buoyed by a sell-out audience, the event became a celebration of the program, the impressive young talent, both combining to serve the regional community. That community sense united the audience of all ages, where the adults could appreciate the theater’s education programming and what it contributes to the development of participating children, and the children in the audience could see their own possibilities.

A staged play reading of “Young at Heart” was a feature of the fundraising event at The Sharon Playhouse on Friday, Dec. 6.Leila Hawken

This was a community that anyone would want to be a member of, and that would welcome everyone warmly. The education program offers five programs for all ages, of which YouthStage is one.

Recounting his own history with Sharon Playhouse, Baldwin said that he had first discovered the Sharon Playhouse at the young age of ten, a connection that has now lasted 30 years.

“It was the place where I could be myself; I could be me,” Baldwin said. Judging from the audience enthusiasm at the event, the “me” that Baldwin has contributed has meant the world to the development of the theater’s education program.

Proceeds from the evening’s fundraiser paid for the purchase of the new risers in use within the Bok theater space.

The playhouse began to grow the education program in 2020, and over the past four years it has grown, Baldwin said. In 2024, the education program attracted 148 young people, and in 2025, programs are expected to attract 165.

“The heart of our community,” was how Baldwin described the playhouse’s place in Sharon.

Going on to a most entertaining presentation of budget numbers, Baldwin said that ticket sales cover one-third of the theater’s operating costs. As an example, Baldwin said, the cost for electrical service currently totals $33,126, and the year is not yet over.

New program in 2025

A new program being introduced in 2025 is LaunchPad, a pre-professional training program for youth 15 to 20 years of age, Baldwin said. Entrance will be by audition. There will be no fee to participate, and participants will receive a $250 stipend. Participants will rehearse and perform in a “flashy” musical to be directed by Baldwin in August. The musical will be announced in January.

Latest News

In remembrance:
Tim Prentice and the art of making the wind visible
In remembrance: Tim Prentice and the art of making the wind visible
In remembrance: Tim Prentice and the art of making the wind visible

There are artists who make objects, and then there are artists who alter the way we move through the world. Tim Prentice belonged to the latter. The kinetic sculptor, architect and longtime Cornwall resident died in November 2025 at age 95, leaving a legacy of what he called “toys for the wind,” work that did not simply occupy space but activated it, inviting viewers to slow down, look longer and feel more deeply the invisible forces that shape daily life.

Prentice received a master’s degree from the Yale School of Art and Architecture in 1960, where he studied with German-born American artist and educator Josef Albers, taking his course once as an undergraduate and again in graduate school.In “The Air Made Visible,” a 2024 short film by the Vision & Art Project produced by the American Macular Degeneration Fund, a nonprofit organization that documents artists working with vision loss, Prentice spoke of his admiration for Albers’ discipline and his ability to strip away everything but color. He recalled thinking, “If I could do that same thing with motion, I’d have a chance of finding a new form.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Laurie Fendrich and Peter Plagens:
A shared 
life in art 
and love

Laurie Fendrich and Peter Plagens at home in front of one of Plagens’s paintings.

Natalia Zukerman
He taught me jazz, I taught him Mozart.
Laurie Fendrich

For more than four decades, artists Laurie Fendrich and Peter Plagens have built a life together sustained by a shared devotion to painting, writing, teaching, looking, and endless talking about art, about culture, about the world. Their story began in a critique room.

“I came to the Art Institute of Chicago as a visiting instructor doing critiques when Laurie was an MFA candidate,” Plagens recalled.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

Strategic partnership unites design, architecture and construction

Hyalite Builders is leading the structural rehabilitation of The Stissing Center in Pine Plains.

Provided

For homeowners overwhelmed by juggling designers, architects and contractors, a new Salisbury-based collaboration is offering a one-team approach from concept to construction. Casa Marcelo Interior Design Studio, based in Salisbury, has joined forces with Charles Matz Architect, led by Charles Matz, AIA RIBA, and Hyalite Builders, led by Matt Soleau. The alliance introduces an integrated design-build model that aims to streamline the sometimes-fragmented process of home renovation and new construction.

“The whole thing is based on integrated services,” said Marcelo, founder of Casa Marcelo. “Normally when clients come to us, they are coming to us for design. But there’s also some architecture and construction that needs to happen eventually. So, I thought, why don’t we just partner with people that we know we can work well with together?”

Keep ReadingShow less
‘The Dark’ turns midwinter into a weeklong arts celebration

Autumn Knight will perform as part of PS21’s “The Dark.”

Provided

This February, PS21: Center for Contemporary Performance in Chatham, New York, will transform the depths of midwinter into a radiant week of cutting-edge art, music, dance, theater and performance with its inaugural winter festival, The Dark. Running Feb. 16–22, the ambitious festival features more than 60 international artists and over 80 performances, making it one of the most expansive cultural events in the region.

Curated to explore winter as a season of extremes — community and solitude, fire and ice, darkness and light — The Dark will take place not only at PS21’s sprawling campus in Chatham, but in theaters, restaurants, libraries, saunas and outdoor spaces across Columbia County. Attendees can warm up between performances with complimentary sauna sessions, glide across a seasonal ice-skating rink or gather around nightly bonfires, making the festival as much a social winter experience as an artistic one.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tanglewood Learning Institute expands year-round programming

Exterior of the Linde Center for Music and Learning.

Mike Meija, courtesy of the BSO

The Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI), based at Tanglewood, the legendary summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is celebrating an expanded season of adventurous music and arts education programming, featuring star performers across genres, BSO musicians, and local collaborators.

Launched in the summer of 2019 in conjunction with the opening of the Linde Center for Music and Learning on the Tanglewood campus, TLI now fulfills its founding mission to welcome audiences year-round. The season includes a new jazz series, solo and chamber recitals, a film series, family programs, open rehearsals and master classes led by world-renowned musicians.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.