KELSEY KIDS PLAYSHOPS Sessions to Kick Off 9/21 at MCCC

Aspiring actors from ages 5 to 14 can get a taste of life on the stage through Kelsey Kids Playshops, a series of creative theater workshops held at Kelsey Theatre on the Mercer County Community College campus.

Workshops are held on Saturdays starting Sept. 21, and run through Nov. 23 when they culminate in a "sharing" with friends and relatives. Kelsey Kids Playshops are held in conjunction with Youth Stages under the supervision of its founder, Jean Prail Rosolino, an educational specialist in youth theater with extensive experience as a director and actor. She founded Youth Stages in 1996 and serves as an artist representative for arts educators.

The workshops are age-group appropriate, with three different sessions: PLAYtime, for K through 2nd grade students; PLAYing Around With Theatre, for 3rd through 5th grade students; and PLAYSHOPS Masters, for 6th through 8th grade students.

· In PLAYtime, held on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. for 10 weeks, students explore movement and storytelling as they dramatize stories through language and pantomime.

· PLAYing Around With Theatre classes, also a 10-week Saturday class, is held from 10:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and encourages students to become other characters cooperating with one another as they create improvised scenes.

· PLAYSHOPS Masters is a 24-week Saturday class, running from 10:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. This is an advanced class for students who have attended two semesters of Playshops or the equivalent of a year of acting classes elsewhere, or with the permission of the instructor. This group will devise, script, rehearse, and present an original play in a final performance in April.

Class sizes are limited. To register online, visit Kelsey Kids Playshops at www.kelseytheatre.net or call (609) 570-3566.