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Building C
Matilda Kunin received her formal training in theater education and worked for many years in community playhouses and local acting guilds. She seemed destined to combine her passion for teaching and the performing arts. In the early ‘60s she moved to the Bay Area with her husband.
Tragically, an accident claimed the life of their son Anthony in 1982 — giving her profound reason to start Young Performers Theater (YPT) in his honor. YPT first set up shop at Ghirardelli Square, and then moved to a dance studio the following year. But Kunin was seeking a more secure, full-time arrangement. Luckily, Fort Mason Center had just the space she needed.
Since 1984, YPT has operated out of the Center, hosting regular performances, drama classes, and a range of creative activities for children. During the last 25 years, YPT has presented more than one hundred mainstage children’s productions of such classics as Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh as well as premieres by local playwrights, including The Adventures of Six Toes written by San Francisco author Danny Martin and The Baker Street Irregulars by Sean Owens.
YPT is the only full-time children’s theater in the Bay Area, and one of only a handful of American theaters offering introductory acting classes to children as young as three years old. Its Theatre Arts Academy teaches very young students the fundamentals of drama and instructs older children in acting, performance, and musical theater. Advanced students from the age of nine audition for mainstage plays, and work alongside adult actors in professional productions. The Academy also sends teachers into schools to conduct acting and creative play workshops. YPT administers a program that has donated more than 20,000 tickets to over 30 Bay Area groups, giving children in need the chance to see live theater with kids just like them on stage.
“I want to give children a well-rounded, fulfilled life,” said Kunin. Most of YPT’s students are from public schools that lack theater or drama instruction. “Theater is equally important as reading or writing,” she said. “Most of our students use what they learn as a way to enhance their own strengths — they find some way to use these newfound talents in their everyday lives.”
In fact, many alumni have gone on to aspiring careers in film, acting, and even law. One YPT alum, Samantha Weaver, has become a successful local film producer. Two of her more notable works include the documentaries Confessions of a Burning Man and Monumental: David Brower’s Fight for Wild America. Another alum, Yuri Lane, has won critical acclaim for his one-man show, Making of a Human Beatbox, which has played at the Jewish Community Center. “Many of my students have also become lawyers,” she said. “They’re always performing.”
YPT’s location at Fort Mason Center has provided a safe venue for children, and serves as an interesting destination for parents, said Kunin. “We’re very proud to be able to offer family-oriented programs here in a city that’s not always friendly to children,” she said.
Looking to the future, Kunin said she wants to move YPT into the digital age. “We’d like to combine our performances with movie-making to create digital productions that our students can have to call their own,” she said. Other programs and classes are also in the works.
“Being in business for 25 years has been quite an accomplishment,” said Kunin. “Our programs inspire kids to perform, which gets them involved in theater and other activities. The kids that pick up on it are really exceptional,” she said. Smiling, Kunin added: “They keep you young.”
For more about Young Performers Theater, please visit www.ypt.org.
— Aaron Lehmer
Images:
The cast from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
Young Performers Theatre Founder Matilda Kunin, Photo: Ron Tierney |
Info Box
Young Performers Theatre
Description
Young Performers Theatre is a nonprofit children’s professional theater that presents a diverse series of shows each year, tours local schools with productions and creative play workshops, offers classes for children (ages 3-9) in the dramatic arts, and hosts children’s birthday parties.
Founder
Matilda Kunin
Location
Bldg. C, 3rd Floor
Contact Information
(415) 346-5550
sf_ypt@hotmail.com
www.ypt.org
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Caroline Werth
President & CEO |
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