DONNA INGLIMA BRINGS THE MAGIC OF LIVE THEATRE TO YOUNG PEOPLE
By Michael Crabb
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By her admission Donna Inglima has to do “a lot of juggling” in her role as The Laguna Playhouse’s Director of Youth Theatre, Education & Outreach but she loves it all. For Donna, bringing the magic of theatre to young audiences is just as important for The Laguna Playhouse as mounting stellar productions—“big people theatre,” as she puts it—on the Mainstage season. Although there’s always the hope that young people, awakened to the power of theatre, may become the adult audiences of the future, for Donna the value of The Playhouse’s education initiatives is much more broad-based. |
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Whether it’s a school group watching a Youth Theatre production on the Moulton stage, a classroom of kindergarten students shrieking their delight at a touring TheatreReach show or teenagers getting hands-on experience in the Youth Conservatory, for Donna it’s all about making The Playhouse an integral part of the community by offering its young people an artistic experience that enriches their lives and enhances learning.
Thirty years ago, back in her days teaching, acting and directing in upstate New York, Donna could never imagined herself working in such an idyllic location as Laguna Beach but it was there, in Fulton, that she met a young Rick Stein, later to become The Playhouse’s Executive Director. It was that friendship, maintained over the ensuing years, that finally convinced Donna in 1998 to accept Rick’s invitation to become the company’s first Education Director.
Donna Inglima was born in Freeport, on the south shore of Long Island. It was not an easy childhood. Her mother passed away when Donna was seven. Her jazz violinist father died three years later. She and her old sister were sent to live with their paternal aunt in Burbank. Their two younger siblings stayed back east with their father’s brother. After high school, Donna headed for New York. “I guess my drive was to put the family back together.” Music and theatre were very much part of her childhood and “pretty early on” she had decided she wanted to act. She returned to college in California and then, after the death of her guardian aunt, felt drawn again to New York where her theatrical apprentice ship included a mix of stage work, stage managing and writing.
When the apartment building she lived in burned, Donna she took it as sign that it was time for a change and moved upstate. That’s where she first encountered Rick Stein, then Executive Director of the Oswego County Council on the Arts, when he hired her to direct its new outreach theatre troupe touring area schools. He also directed Donna in a play he staged for Contemporary Theatre of Syracuse, a company he co-founded.
Soon, after a stint in grad school, Donna was immersed in the theatre life of the region as a director and university teacher and began to venture into kids’ theatre. Long before Donna—after 13 years upstate—returned once again to New York, Rick Stein had moved on, finally settling at The Playhouse in 1990. Donna took the opportunity of a visit to California to drop by to see Rick. Eager to expand and consolidate The Playhouse’s sporadic school touring activity, he invited her to join the staff. “Rick had to offer three times. I was happy in New York. I’d started my own business as an acting coach and was directing too. But when I realized what a wonderful place this is to live I asked myself ‘why do I keep saying no’ and accepted.”
Now, juggling directing with teaching and administration, Donna finds herself fulfilled yet is still ambitious. She sees greater potential for integrating theatre skills into the broad school curriculum and is passionate about ensuring that young people in the community are given “creative space” in which to activate their imaginations and acquire self-esteem by discovering they have the capacity to go beyond themselves and create something new.
TheatreReach: Bringing Books to Life
The Laguna Playhouse’s popular TheatreReach program brings the magic of live theatre to schools throughout Orange County and beyond. The one-hour productions are stage adaptations of books included in the K-6 literature and history curriculum. No other theatre company in the region offers a curriculum-based professional touring program. Teachers are provided with study guides in advance and post-performance Q & A sessions enrich the educational impact event. Our TheatreReach program runs at full capacity. Tours are often over-subscribed, creating a waiting list for schools requesting performances. TheatreReach plays are typically toured in pairs during the fall for about eight weeks and, a different pair, for up to 12 weeks in the winter and spring. Each week, as many as nine performances are offered in elementary and middle schools. A single company of as many as six actors performs each set of two alternating plays for an annual total of about 150 shows. Performances have taken place in schools located in Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties.
Half the cost of each performance is paid for by the schools, with the Playhouse raising funds in the community and from grants to support the rest. An individual can sponsor TheatreReach a performance in a designated recipient school in his or her community through a gift of only $1,000. For more information, contact our Development Office at (949) 497-2787 x 220.
I highly recommend this educational outreach program; administrators, teachers, and students will not be disappointed." -Randall Coleman, Coordinator, Visual & Performing Arts, Santa Ana Unified School District
