Ralph & Lilian Fendig Summer Theatre for Children Inc

Our program goals include giving the children an opportunity to learn about the performing arts through a high quality theatre experience. This experience also provides the children and other community members to engage with each other to enhance the quality of life within the community.

Strategies to be successful are to have a board of directors dedicated to the longevity of our program throughout the year. We also strive to hire talented staff to educate and train our children. Staff members must understand that our goals include teaching performing arts skills as well as skills focusing on teamwork and communication with all involved, the children and our volunteers. In the end the participants have experience in how their individual part combines with others to impact a community.

The Fendig Summer Theatre for Children has been successfully implementing our program for forty four years. We have worked hard to be a positive presence in the Rensselaer community. Priorities are taken to ensure resources are used efficiently, the community is involved and that we communicate with our patrons. The program has an endowment set up to ensure we have long term investments for the program as well as the generosity of our patrons both in funds donated as well as knowledge to pass on the each year's participants.

The program has produced forty four successful full length performances. Many of our alumni go on to give back to the program exclaiming experiences shaping how the program shaped their lives and how it helped them understand the power of participating in the community.

What's next? In addition to preparing for our 45th summer production, we are in the process of acquiring our own property to develop a warehouse for our resources, a space to expand education in the arts and a venue to hold additional performances throughout the year.