Children’s theater and performing arts school to open in Rexburg
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REXBURG — A school for children to learn theater and performing arts is set to open a second location in east Idaho.
The Palace Conservatory for the Performing Arts, owned by the Palace Theatre in Chubbuck, will open a new location in Rexburg at 48 Professional Way. The first semester will begin on Feb. 5, and people who are interested in signing their children can do it on the website.
“It’s such a large program that offers so many benefits to the children, and parents are often blown away when they come to the performance at how much their child has grown,” said Jenna Davies, co-owner of the Palace Theatre.
The Palace Conservatory runs a fall and spring semester every year, with a break in the summer. During the semesters, they rehearse for a show and perform it three to six times for friends, family and other members of the community.
The Palace Theatre has run the conservatory for five years, and due to the size of the program, the students are rehearsing for three separate shows. This semester, the kids are performing “101 Dalmatians,” “Descendants the Musical” and “Mean Girls Junior.”
Students at the Rexburg conservatory will perform “Little Mermaid Junior” at the end of the semester. When students join the program, they audition for whatever part they want to play and learn about the process.
The program runs after school and has been for kids ages 5 through 18. For Rexburg, the youngest accepted age is 8, and staff hope to expand the program down to 5-year-olds within a couple of years.
Davies said that once kids join the program, they learn character blocking, choreography and how to act their parts. She said that as the students learn how to do this, they experience character growth.
“We’ve seen a huge change in the children’s confidence from when they first come into the program to when they are performing because they are learning really valuable skills,” Davies said.
The cost of admission ranges from $55 to $65 a month.
“So it’s really affordable. It’s a really good option for kids to come and participate in something,” Davies said.
For kids who haven’t found an extracurricular activity they’ve clicked with yet, that activity could be theatre, Davies said.
“If they’re not active in athletics or they didn’t love competitive dance, oftentimes some of those kids need to find something that they’re really good at and that they thrive in,” Davies said. “So it’s kind of a new activity that kids get to try out and see if that’s where they belong.”