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06/14/2017 08:30 AMWhat do Mike Kosko, Peter Pan, and Guilford Youth & Family Services (GYFS) have in common?
Mike is not only the GYFS youth prevention specialist, he’s also the GYFS Family Theatre facilitator. As such, he’s been busy organizing a cast of more than 30 Guilford kids populating Peter Pan Jr. The musical will have three performances at Guilford High School (GHS), 605 New England Road, between Saturday, June 24 and Sunday, June 25.
The full-scale production includes a pit orchestra, theatrical lighting, talented young vocalists, choreography, and costumes. Performances are June 24 at 2 and 7 p.m. and June 25 at noon. Tickets, $12, are available by calling 203-453-8047 or by visiting gyfspan.brownpapertickets.com. Tickets are also available at the GYFS office (36 Graves Avenue) as well as at the door on show days.
Proceeds from ticket sales provide additional monetary support to annual grant assistance used to help produce GYFS Family Theatre productions.
“This marks the 10th year that we’re doing a family theater production,” says Mike. “It started when a new grant was available through the state Department of Education specifically for youth service bureaus to enhance their programming. We’ve continued to use the grant each year since then.”
Mike says GYFS hit the nail on the head when determining Guilford could benefit from a family theater program featuring student players aged 8 to 12.
“We felt like theater wasn’t a huge opportunity in town for this target age group, and we felt like we could open it up and provide a really educational piece to that, bringing everyone together in town,” he says. “All of the productions that we choose usually focus around certain developmental things that we want to try to hit on, in terms of what the assets are. We also try to incorporate intergenerational members into our programs, so in terms of positive peer models, there’s always a piece of that. It’s full community program between all the partners that are involved in it.”
As always, the show’s not just being produced to entertain audiences, but to layer in lessons of positive youth development and intergenerational interaction for the cast, Mike explains. Parents are hands-on from the start, helping with everything from costumes and props to being backstage and acting as ushers. The show also relies on community volunteers and even gets an assist from members of the GYFS board.
“The board will run the concession stand at each of the performances,” says Mike.
In addition, the production benefits from a group of high school students who act as mentors.
Part of work Mike does on a daily basis for GYFS involves bringing programming to Guilford school kids of all ages. Mike joined the GYFS team 11 years ago. At that time, GYFS was just beginning to grow into today’s multi-level community services program.
“We’re always adding things and making changes as we try to meet community needs,” he says.
Regular programming offered by GYFS touches all of the towns schools, as well.
“At the elementary schools we offer mentoring-type programs,” says Mike. “We’ve brought in homework clubs that help kids after school, run by our interns, with high school students as mentors.”
For Baldwin Middle School students (grades 5 and 6), GYFS partners with Guilford Police and Fire departments to bring “Home Alone” workshops to the students. At Adams Middle School, serving Guilford’s 7th and 8th graders, GYFS runs a variety of adventure programming, including summer offerings based out of the GYFS office in the center of town.
“Over the summer, something we’ll be picking up is our Teen Adventure biking program. We have mountain bikes here and we go and ride the different trails in Guilford,” says Mike.
Mike brings plenty of programming to the town’s high school students, as well.
“Our main program there is the SADD [Students Against Destructive Decisions] program,” he notes. “Red Ribbon Week is a big [SADD] push in the beginning of the year, and in the spring we run our SADD Awareness Week, which puts a big focus on making positive, healthy choices and staying away from alcohol, tobacco, and drugs.”
For several months each year, Mike also works as producer and co-director of GYFS Family Theatre. He credits his team with helping to make the production come together. They include a new co-director and choreographer this year, Sharyn Farrell, as well as music director Aron Smith, returning for a second year, and production assistant Danielle Durazzo, an Albertus Magnus College intern who volunteered to stay on when her internship wrapped up. One of GYFS Family Theatre’s previous co-directors and choreographers, Apollo Smile, is designing the show’s costumes.
This year’s auditions drew upwards of 70 kids to try out for Peter Pan Jr. That’s a typical audition crowd, says Mike. The great response is a testament to the way the community has embraced this GYFS offering.
“The program has really grown,” says Mike. “One thing that we’re very proud of with the program is we have almost as many boys auditioning as girls. When we first started, it was probably about 80 percent girls and 20 percent boys. So we’ve really been able to change that, and to look at new shows that we need more boys for, which has been helpful.”
This year’s cast includes 33 members who are all from the Guilford community. Since April, the kids have been rehearsing every Tuesday and Thursday after school as well as on Saturdays.
“We work with Park & Rec very closely because our rehearsal space is there. They’re always very helpful with scheduling and fitting us in, and they also allow us storage space for props and things, so it’s been a great connection,” says Mike.
He also thanks Guilford Public Schools for sharing the GHS Performing Arts Center stage for the show. The GHS Theater Department and program members get kudos for assists including helping GYFS transition to online ticket sales and helping with questions or issues raised by outside tech staff GYFS hires for the production’s lighting and sound.
“In addition to the [school] staff, we also work with high school students who are our crew members, who help us run the show,” says Mike. “This year we have 10 high school students and we also have five who are Adams Middle School students—and five of those 15 are actually past cast members who have aged out. They can’t be a part of the cast anymore, so they come back on for crew.”
The organic development of adding past cast members to the crew creates another layer to the program’s mentoring component.
“It’s always nice for the younger cast members to see someone they know helping out,” says Mike. “It gives them that extra bit of confidence and it just continues to build that community program, with the kids as the stars.”