New program at Summerside theatre aims to make young Islanders performing arts fans for life
Harbourfront Theatre offers schools a chance to stage their own productions for free
Harbourfront Theatre in Summerside hopes to get more students on its stage and in its seats through a program it just launched.
Stages for Students offers children free tickets to shows, and provides funding to help schools stage their own productions at the theatre.
It's all part of the theatre's goal of nurturing and developing a love of performing arts on P.E.I., beginning with its youngest patrons.
"Programming for young audiences has always been a part of our mandate and we've enjoyed hosting lots of Island schools in our earlier years," said Mary Dennis, Harbourfront Theatre's executive director.
"As the years went on, there seemed to be a few more barriers to the schools being able to come in as much as they used to, and one of those barriers was, of course, a financial barrier."
Finding funding wasn't just an issue for schools. The non-profit theatre was not in a position to offer something like Stages for Students on its own.
Or it wasn't, until the stars aligned with a generous $25,000 donation from the family of Marcia Whalen, an educator and a volunteer at Harbourfront for 21 years who died in 2024.
When her children asked if there was any programming a donation could go toward, the theatre's staff had exactly the right fit.
"We love to dream big around here, and we imagined a program that would open our doors to the students of our community so that they could both attend performing arts and stage their own performances completely free of charge," Dennis said.
'Creating the audiences of tomorrow'
Staff are now lining up programming for this fall, and they're inviting schools across the Island to bring busloads of kids to see a performance for free.
Any school interested in staging its own production on Harbourfront's stage can find more information on the theatre's website.
"We can make it snow, we can do all kinds of really cool things that they couldn't necessarily do at their schools.," Dennis said. "It really opens the doorway to whatever they can imagine [and] we can help them accomplish it."
Since the donation in Whalen's memory will stretch only so far, the theatre is campaigning for more annual donors to help sustain Stages for Students. Any contributions are tax-deductible, and Islanders can donate to the program right now through the site.
Dennis said those donations will result in personal growth and more confidence and creativity among young Islanders.
"To foster a love of performing arts in kids at a young age means they're going to love the performing arts all their lives," she said.
"We're basically creating the audiences of tomorrow."
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With files from Mainstreet P.E.I.