My Amazing Theater School

My Amazing Theater School
An essay by Maya Handler, 4th Grade Student
Wharton Music Center

Maya, a fourth grader at McGinn Elementary School in Scotch Plains, was asked to write a descriptive essay in school. She chose to write about Wharton Music Center. Her essay was so touching that we asked to re-print it in the Wharton blog. Maya has been a student at Wharton Music Center for several years as a member of the Broadway Kids Musical Theatre Project.

Wharton Music Center is a place of song, performance, devotion and love. When you walk through the wide glass doors, you feel a rush of warmth and confidence surge throughout you. As you step into the lobby, it looks as if you stepped into a big bolt of color. Beautiful swirls and designs surround you. As you walk down the hallways, you will see many photos of the amazing people who have performed, grew and taught here. As you stroll towards the theater, you will see classrooms lined up like soldiers lined up in rows. Next is my personal favorite room of the school, the theater. Its beautiful tapestries, its long pitch black curtains and best of all, its performers.

 At Wharton Music Center, we learn amazing choreography to go with our songs. We do that in the dance room. The dance room is a big dance studio that is filled with inspiring photos of the most amazing dancers that ever lived. There are multiple sets of bars that tower up to the ceiling with costumes that are each delicately sewn by hand. The dance studio has beautifully decorated walls with music notes and people dancing. My favorite part of the room is the HUGE stereo with surround sound that spreads through the room leaving eternal marks of the inspiring, beautiful music that played there.

In my opinion, the vocal room is like that last secret ingredient that you need to complete the recipe. The vocal room is a wide vibrant room with amazing features. The great wall is a wall in the vocal room that is smothered with the art made by the students. The vocal room plays a huge part in the show process because that is where we warm up and practice our songs. I really love my theater school and if there’s anything they’ve taught us, it’s to follow our dreams, and I do just that. I sometimes reflect on my progress going from playing a coconut tree to the leading role, and I hope I keep blossoming into a great actress in this space.

Broadway Kids Musical Theatre Project serves as an introduction to the essentials of musical theatre and the staging of a production. Students are introduced to the concept of “triple threat”--proficiency in voice, drama, and dance. To enroll in a musical theatre class at Wharton Music Center or view our complete course listing, visit us online at www.whartonmusiccenter.org.