M&D Playhouse’s Theatre Arts Studio aims to nurture students of all ages, at all stages,
by offering a variety of educational and performance opportunities, and seeks to empower life skills through the shared experience of theatre.
Why a Theatre Arts Education?
- Students involved in drama performance coursework or experience outscored non-arts students on the 2005 SAT by an average of 65 points in the verbal component and 34 in the math component.
- Drama activities improve reading comprehension, and both verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
- Drama helps to improve school attendance and reduce high school dropout rates.
- A 2005 Harris Poll revealed that 93% of the public believes that arts, including theatre, are vital to a well-rounded education.
- Drama can improve skills and academic performance in children and youth with learning disabilities.As extracted from American Alliance for Theatre and Education.
There are currently no classes being offered.
To register, you have several options:
Sign up online. (*Prefered Method*)
Workshop and Classes Registration
Contact M&D Playhouse at (603) 733-5275 to register over the phone.
Email boxoffice@mdplayhouse.com
Meet The Teachers of the Theatre Arts Studio
Cindy Sauerwein
Theatre Arts Studio Director
A relatively new transplant to the Valley, Cindy brings to M&D her love of the performing arts, organization skills honed from years as a contractor to the Federal government, and a willingness to take on new and exciting endeavors. She is proud to oversee the new Theatre Arts Studio – a dedicated space for students of all ages to learn the craft of the theatre!
Mary Bastoni-Rebmann
Specialty Workshops, Elementary Theatre Arts Instructor
Mary has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in classical voice performance. A sampling of her professional credits include performing in opera, classical and musical theatre productions, and teaching voice at the University of Southern Maine, Mountain Top Music Center, and at her private voice studio in Fryeburg.
She has directed multiple theatrical productions with Arts in Motion, Lakes Region Community Theatre, and M&D Playhouse. For over 21 years, Mary has written original scores for children’s musicals for her children’s musical theatre workshop – Center Stage Children’s Musical Theatre.
Rich Russo
Young Adult/Adult Theatre Arts Instructor
Rich has over 50 years of acting and directing experience. He studied in New York with Julie Bovasso, Jack Poggi, and Stefan Rudnicki, and with Michael Finlayson of the Royal Shakespeare Academy in London. He received his Master’s in Theatre Arts from C.W. Post University in Brookville, NY.
Acting credits include Frank in Lovers and Other Strangers, Donner in Reindeer Monologues, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Henry McCoy in Papermaker, Bill Perch in The Jacksonian, Lyman Wyeth in Other Desert Cities, Noel in Homestead Crossing, Joseph Halpern in Halpern and Johnson, Paul Sheldon in Misery, Otto Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank, Joe Keller in All My Sons, Frank in How the Other Half Loves, Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Henry in The Lion in Winter, Brian in The Shadow Box, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Sir Andrew in Twelfth Night, Teach in American Buffalo, and Howard in Picnic, among many others.
He has worked with M&D since 1999, and during that time has directed many productions, including The Shadow Box, The Woolgather, Papermaker, Last Gas, Walter Cronkite is Dead, Wait Until Dark, Dracula, Two Rooms, Deathtrap, Agnes of God, The Real Inspector Hound, Burn This, The Odd Couple (female version), Talley’s Folly, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rabbit Hole, Crimes of the Heart, The Importance of Being Earnest, And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little, Art, and The Glass Menagerie. A two-time winner of the New Hampshire Theatre Award for Best Director (The Glass Menagerie in 2002 and Talley’s Folly in 2011), he also won the Best Actor Award for the role of Joseph Halpern in Halpern and Johnson in 2012.