When it comes to erecting empires of erudition and entertainment, the artists and educators at the Newtown Arts Company and Newtown Theatre are newly proving to be masters of their domain.
The two longstanding Newtown institutions are now offering Master Class Monday, eight-session classes in creative topics ranging from stage to screen in separate schedulings for children and adults (https://www.thenewtowntheatre.com/masterclassmonday).
It's all taught by a protean and proficient faculty culled from the best of Broadway and beyond offering their professional perspectives.
All the world's a stage? It is at least on that piece of theater property on State Street, where the state of the arts will be examined and explored by the Magellans of musical theater and the De Sotos of de dramas.
The potential of area artists is nothing new for actress Alexis Bronkovic, a native of Newtown and executive director of Master Class Monday, whose bio bespeaks a bevy of accomplishment in film, TV and the riches of respected regional theaters around the country.
But honing her multiple talents began at home; the Council Rock High School North grad earned a scholarship from the Newtown Arts Company. Indeed, the company played its own part in her development, with a role in the company's "Hello, Dolly!" bidding her welcome to what she knew she had to do as a career.
The parade never passed her by. As she once told Authority Magazine: "It was equal parts exhilarating and safe — like I had found a home up there. And I don't think I ever looked back.”
Looking forward, that scholarship from Newtown Arts propelled her to a major success story at Marymount Manhattan College.
Post-Marymount credits range from the Guthrie Theater, the Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Signature Theater. These days she applies her signature to SAC projects as head of its education program.
"My long-term dream was to have a Newtown-New York connection," she says today.
She's got one now and wouldn't exchange it for anything.
As someone who believes that faculties best serve when they use all their physical/intellectual faculties — as actors and academics — there's no place like home to hone in on this creative concept.
"The program offers lots of professional expertise — and a lot of fun," she says of Master Class Mondays.
And some funny performers: Actor L Thayne Jasperson should probably be getting the royal treatment when he lords over his colony of kids and adults in a masterclass: Jasperson portrayed King George III, the silly, salivating British braggart in “Hamilton.” (Jasperson is now in the Broadway ensemble.)
"Igniting the spirits of our young future artists excites me," he exclaims. "Aside from performing on Broadway every night, I am inspired by working with these aspiring artists. I wish I would have had that opportunity when I was in their shoes."
He credits Newtown Arts Company's Lisa Reiser, president/producer of Master Class Monday and other education programs, for reaching "out to me to come teach."
The actor will instruct in "Broadway Dance: Storytelling, Technique...and All That Jazz."
Indeed, Jasperson sounds jazzed to take part in it all. "I loved how they integrate all ages to participate. It’s never too late to start."
And it does all start Monday, with Bucks itself part of the appeal.
"Some might find a new creative home here," says Bronkovic of the masters in the house. Indeed, as she notes, the late legendary composer "Oscar Hammerstein called it his artistic home."
It is all a hallowed haven with a history of creative histrionics.
"It's kind of a magical place," acknowledges Bronkovic, who herself seems to have fallen under Bucks County's casting a spell of abracadabra for actors/administrators.
Michael Elkin is a playwright, theater critic and novelist who lives in Abington. He writes occasional columns about theater and the arts.
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