Theater in Brattleboro offers a conservatory for kids

Area professionals are a huge asset. "Our voice teacher is one of the top teachers at the Yale School of Drama," says Stephen Stearns, the artistic director, who founded the theater in 1998. Among the instructors are acrobats from the New England Center for Circus Arts, musicians from the Brattleboro Music Center, and choreographers from the Brattleboro School of Dance.

Ask just about anybody involved with NEYT and they'll tell you the excellence on stage begins with Stearns.

"The kids get pulled in by the magnet of Stephen," says Rebecca Waxman, an actress who's directing the upcoming production of "Guys and Dolls." "Every kid goes through his classes. I work with the older kids, and by the time they get to me they are so big and brave and fearless."

Stearns has a background as eclectic as the shows the group produces. He has a doctorate in Shakespearean drama from the University of Washington and has done advanced studies at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. He has spent decades on the road, giving thousands of performances around the world with Peter Gould as the professional clowning team of Gould & Stearns. Gould now directs shows and teaches at NEYT.

"I love working with kids," says Stearns, about why he started the school. He had taught theater before, primarily for older students and adults. He got a taste for teaching younger students through touring with Gould, as many of the shows were for schools. "Peter was going back for a doctorate, so I did a summer program with kids for two weeks. I got up happier than I'd ever been in my life."

They began working with elementary school students. At first, he recalls, "the high school kids wouldn't have anything to do with us. But as those first kids got older, they all stayed with me for 7, 8 years."

One who stayed is Sean Fitzharris, 17, who started when he was 9. "He's gone to Russia with me three times," says Stearns, "and done a lot of clowning in hospitals."