🎭Empowering Young Performers Through Theater🎭

Episode Summary: Paul Ward speaks with Marta Dewey, founder of the Performance Theater for Young Artists (PTYA), a Ventura County-based nonprofit that has nurtured thousands of kids through year-round theater productions since 1999. From shy first-timers to confident leads, Marta shares how theater builds confidence, community, and creativity in youth aged 6 to 19. Discover how this beloved local program blends arts education with life skills — all while putting on fantastic musicals like Matilda and Shrek.

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 – Introduction Paul welcomes Marta Dewey and sets the stage for her inspiring story.

00:37 – How PTYA Began Marta shares how a one-time school musical grew into a year-round youth theater company.

01:46 – A Year-Round Program for All Ages How the company works: kids audition per production; many grow with the program for years.

02:55 – Singing, Acting, Dance, and Tech Theater PTYA develops young talent across performance and behind-the-scenes skills.

03:31 – Recent Production: Matilda the Musical Over 40 students from ages 7 to 18 performed in the most recent production.

04:02 – How Students Find Their Passion Some join for fun, others for the spotlight — all build confidence and skills.

05:06 – Rehearsal Schedules & Community Feel 10 hours per week, tech week before shows, and a close-knit cast culture.

06:25 – Costumes & Set Design Parents and students pitch in to bring each show to life.

07:36 – PTYA Alumni Success Stories One student went on to become an opera singer performing internationally.

09:00 – Audience & Performance Space Typical audience size and how they manage sold-out shows with flexible seating.

09:41 – Upcoming Production: Shrek the Musical Details on the next production and how rehearsals are ramping up.

10:22 – Licensing, Scripts & Choreography How PTYA acquires materials and relies on teen choreographers for fresh ideas.

11:20 – Growth Stories: From Shy to Spotlight Powerful examples of personal growth through theater.

13:17 – Funding a Nonprofit Theater Program How PTYA stays afloat: fundraising, tuition, ticket sales, grants, and scholarships.

14:29 – Volunteer-Driven Success Parents, alumni, and teens fuel the program with their time and passion.

15:24 – Performance Frequency & Summer Camp Four to five shows per year, plus a two-week summer camp with a final performance.

16:49 – The Future of PTYA Marta discusses the program’s continued growth and long-standing community roots.

17:17 – Closing & Gratitude Paul thanks Marta for her decades of dedication and impact.

🔗 Learn More About PTYA:  ptya.org 3451 Foothill Rd Ventura, CA 93003 p. [phone] e. [e-mail] 👉Contact Paul Ward: homeandranch.com p. 805-479-5004 e. [e-mail]

📢 Thank You to Our Sponsor: Opus Escrow — making this episode possible.

#YouthTheater #PTYA #VenturaCounty #OnTheRoadWithPaulWard #PerformingArts #MusicalTheater #ShrekTheMusical #MatildaTheMusical

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Hi friends, it's Paul Ward here,and welcome to On the Road. Well,
maybe you performed inyour high school musical,
or maybe you did not have theopportunity and wish that you had,
but our next guest is making sure thatkids from all over our local Ventura
County area have that opportunity.
Marta Dewey with the PerformanceTheater for Young Artists.
Welcome to On the Road.

(00:24):
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Absolutely. And we wanna thank oursponsor, Opus Escrow. So Marta,
tell us how did you start the PTYA,
the performance theater for young artists?
Well, I was teaching music and,
and theater at two privatehigh schools and trying

(00:45):
to get the kids motivated.
I decided to put on a musical playbecause I've done that in my background,
and it was such a big hit, andthe parents were saying, oh,
there's nothing like that aroundhere. And back in those days,
which was 1999 there really wasn't much

(01:06):
in Ventura county, especiallyLower Ventura County, Oxnard,
Camillo Ventura. Mm-Hmm .And so I thought, well, you know,
maybe I'll, I'll start a aa group, a theater group.
And so I started it backthen with some of my,
my students that from school. Andit just took off from there. And

(01:28):
it's, it was the only year roundyouth theater group in the area.
And I think it might still be Wow.And it's, yeah, there's a few,
but they're usually like in the summeror, you know, periodically. So so.
This is year round. Yours is yearround. This is a year round program.
Yes. Year round. And the kids audition.

(01:50):
And then so it's like adifferent group for each
production, but a lot of them continue.
So it's not continuous necessarilywith the same group of students,
but a lot of them keep on going. In fact,
a lot of our students started outwhen they were younger kids or very
inexperienced, and they go throughhigh school until they graduate. And.

(02:12):
So is it singing, singing, dancing.
Theater.
Acting?
Yes. Even technical theater.We have a mentoring program,
and so some of our more experiencedkids do help us with choreography
and production assistanceand that sort of thing too.
You have mobile teachers?

(02:33):
Oh yeah, we have it'sprimarily run by volunteers.
They aren't technicallyteachers per se, but you know,
assistant directors andchoreographer, choreographers,
volunteers that come in tohelp with the nonprofit.
What are the age rangesof the, of the students?

(02:55):
Anywhere from six years old to 19 usually.
Yeah, so we get a large variety of ages,
and most of the shows do havea variety of ages in them,
so they all work together.
Sometimes a show will maybe featureteenagers more than younger kids and vice
versa. But a lot of the timeit's a, a mixture. In fact,

(03:20):
we just finished a production calledMatilda the Musical. Mm-Hmm .
And we had over 40 kids from ages,
I believe the youngestwas seven through 18.
Oh, wow. And how manymonths? Yeah. Do they,
do they practice that before theyput on the, put on the final show?
It's usually six to eight weeks. So we,

(03:42):
I think we had about almosteight weeks for Matilda,
but sometimes it's less, butthey get it done. Mm-Hmm.
. How do, how do kidsknow? I guess it's just instinctive,
but know that they wanna be maybesilly question actors or singers
or dancers. I mean, itjust probably innate.

(04:02):
Yeah. I think a lot of them come,
they just want something to do and thenthey wanna continue. A lot of them,
some of them, it, they,
they are really interested inperforming arts mm-hmm .
And so it's a place where they can comeand develop their skills in all of those
areas. Singing, acting, danceperformance, life performance.

(04:23):
Or if they'd rather just focus on oneor two, say dance mm-hmm .
Or singing, then they can do that too.
And they just evolve and and,
and their skills grow. And some of themstart off with really small roles and,
and then they, you know, gainconfidence and they get larger roles.
Or I've had kids come inand say, I don't wanna,

(04:44):
I don't want any speakinglines. I don't want,
they just wanna be in the background because they're shy, nervous,
and Okay, that's fine.And then eventually, okay,
I wanna rule now I wanna havesome lines. And it's a, you know,
they just really get intoit and it's a lot of fun.
How many hours a week arethey, are they practicing?

(05:06):
I would say it's probably about 10
hours total. We have like threeto three rehearsals a week,
sometimes four. It's not a, a reallygrueling schedule. Mm-Hmm .
But it's enough. So we havelike three or four hours.
If it's a weeknight, it'dbe two hours. So, so yeah.

(05:28):
And then when it gets closerto the performance a bit more,
we have what they call Tech week wherewe have a lot of rehearsals getting
everything ready for the show,and everybody works together.
And it's very family oriented. It's likea little family. Mm-Hmm .
The kids are very connected to each otherand it's a really great group of kids.

(05:49):
How many kids are in the program rightnow or kind of typically throughout the
year?
Normally it's maybebetween 30 and, and 35 40.
Oh, wow.
Yeah. Like, right. Like I said, rightnow we just finished a show that had,
I believe it was 46, which isquite a, quite a large group.
We just cast our next show, which isShrek. Mm-Hmm . The musical.

(06:12):
That one, I think we have about32. So it's usually between,
you know, those numbers. And then everytime we do another show, we recast.
And, and so it can fluctuate.
And then what about setdesign and costumes?
Is that a whole other group ofkids? Or is that parent volunteers,

(06:33):
or how does that work?
I have a a lady,
Julie Landine who doesthe costuming and then
we'll get Volunt parent volunteers andeven some of the teen students helping
with that. And so she designsall the, you know, what,
what the costumes will be.
We have quite a large costume closetjust from doing this for so many years.

(06:54):
Mm-Hmm . So wereuse a lot of our costumes,
or if we need something different,she'll, she'll make that happen.
And so every show it all, youknow, comes together with that.
So she works hard on that.Mm-Hmm . And the same with set design.
We all put our,
our set design together and thencome up with what we need for that.

(07:16):
We have a lot of props and setpieces as well. And anything we need,
we'll revamp it or, orbuild it from scratch.
Interesting. Yeah. You've beendoing this a long time since 1999.
Have you seen some of yourstudents go on to, you know,
the big screen.
? Not the big screen,but I do have a student,

(07:39):
a former student named Juliana.Zara. She started with PTA,
I believe when she was eight yearsold. This was many years ago.
And she did it until she was 18.
And she had a a very operatic type voice,
beautiful voice. And so shedecided to pursue opera.
Wow. And actually one of my closestfriends is a professional opera singer,

(08:04):
so I hooked her up with herand she's actually a pretty
well known and successfulopera singer in Europe.
Wow.
Yeah. In fact, she lives in Germany.
And she actually cameback last summer and well,
she said, I wanna do somethingfor PTYA and the kids.
So we put on a showcasewhere she and another

(08:28):
opera singer, a tenor sang, andthey didn't just sing opera,
they sang some opera,
and then they also sang some musicaltheater and that sort of thing.
But they also had the kidsinvolved and it was really great.
And the kids loved it. And it alsoshowed them, you know, what's possible.
Absolutely. Yeah. You know, beyond,beyond our little world here,

(08:50):
it's a whole Exactly. Magicalworld out there. Yeah. How many,
how many folks can fit in the, inthe theater to watch a, watch a show?
It's a pretty large room at, upthere at Point City ,
and I think you could have200 in there. We usually,
I think we have set up about140 to 150, you know, chairs.

(09:12):
And if we need more, we'll add more.Mm-Hmm . In fact, we did,
we sold out all four ofour Matilda performances,
so we had to add more chairsand it was really full in there.
Are they doing two performances a day,or is it kind of over multiple weeks?
It's over two weekends.
So one of the days has amatinee and an evening show,

(09:32):
but the other ones basicallyhave one show per day.
And you're moving, you're doing Shreknow, right? Your, your next show is Shrek?
Yeah, we, yes. We just cast for Shrek.
We just finished the casting and thoseperformances will be at the end of June.
This one's a little shorter of a timeperiod for rehearsal. Like I said,

(09:53):
it does fluctuate.
So it kind of depends on the availabilityof when we can use the stage in that.
So this one we have a little lesstime, but we've done Shrek before,
so we thought, okay, we can getthis one done by then. So that,
that's a very fun show.
And where do you get the, where do youget the choreography and the actual

(10:17):
words? Is that something that,that you purchase or you create?
How does that work?
Well, you, for thesepopular musicals, you,
you pay for the royalties from thepublisher, the music publisher,
and then they give you themusic and the scripts. But,
and then they do give you choreographysamples if you want to use them.

(10:40):
But we usually don't use those.
Our choreographers come up withit and they really do a good job.
And we have some teen older teenagersdoing a lot of the choreography right
now. 'cause They've been doingthis for quite a few years with us,
and they do an amazing job.
Interesting.
Yeah.
So you mentioned kind of starting outyoung and then all the way through high

(11:03):
school. Yes. And thenkids kind of, you know,
grow up and they want biggerroles. Mm-Hmm .
Maybe there's some students you wannatell us about that kind of started shy
and now have just kind of blossomedbeyond your Sure. Yeah. You know.
Sorry. Yeah. I,

(11:23):
one of the girls who'sdoing our choreography,
she started when shewas eight and she's 18.
She's just about tograduate from high school.
And she's really blossomed intoquite an amazing performer.
She just had the lead at her high school.
She has the lead in Shrek with us,

(11:44):
and she also helps with the choreography.
So she's basically grown upat PTYA and such a great girl,
a very good role model for the other kids.
Another girl, she was very,
very shy to the point where she wouldgo in back in the corner and just sit in
the corner and kind of with her headdown and she would come up and do her

(12:08):
scenes, but
she found it difficult to interactwith the other kids and that, and
eventually she also came out ofher shell and she just played
one of the feature roles in Matilda.
And she's also about tograduate from high school,
and I believe she started aboutmaybe age 13. Mm-Hmm .

(12:32):
So it's really helped somany kids battle shyness
and insecurity and, andjust a lot of things.
So they not only learnperforming arts skills,
they also learn a lot of lifeskills, confidence, poise,
working with a team. Mm-Hmm .
And so many things that help them in life.

(12:54):
That's, that's wonderful. Yeah.
And I would imagine they take theirskills that they learn to their own
high school performances.
Absolutely. Absolutely. So yeah.
Maybe get the, maybe get thelead role over there as well.
Yeah. Oh, it happens all the time. Yeah.
So how does how does theorganization get its funding?

(13:17):
Well we fundraise and, I mean,
we raise all of our own funds,and of course that's not easy.
Funding for the performingarts is very competitive,
so we just keep workingat it. We just had a,
a big auction fundraiser andthat helped. And, you know,
we apply for grants and takedonations and that sort of

(13:42):
thing, so we just keepit going and keep it.
And we've been, been able to managethat for the past 25 plus years.
That's incredible. Yeah.
And you're, it's a lot ofwork, but it's worth it. Right?
Your volunteers slash trainers teachers,
are they volunteers too? They'rejust passionate about what they do?

(14:04):
Yes. Yes. Well,
that's volunteers and a lot of themstart off also kind of like the kids.
They don't have much experience and thenthey learn and they get really involved
in what they're doing, whether it'sworking on costuming or sets or
helping with the kids. So yeah,

(14:26):
it really runs on, on the volunteers.
Yeah, I saw that the ticketprices are also pretty reasonable.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Most of our, oh, that'sanother thing with the funding we do,
we do charging tuition and inthe ticket sales really help
out with keeping us going forwardand then supplementing that

(14:48):
with the donations and that sort of thing.
So we try to not haveit too expensive so that
anyone can come and if they wantto participate or they want to see
the show we make it possible for them.
And we also offer a fewscholarships too, in case

(15:08):
a participant wants to be involved,
but they aren't able to pay thetuition so that anyone can be involved
if they want to be.
Oh, that's wonderful. And are you tryingto do one, one performance per quarter?
Is that kind of whatyou, what you shoot for?
, that's what we shoot for,
but sometimes I think this past year it's,

(15:29):
it's was five performances we snuckin an extra one, , Uhhuh,
, and I thinkit's the same this year too.
And some of that has to do withfunding too, just so we, you know,
have enough to going forward.So sometimes it's four,
sometimes it's five large performances.
And then we also occasionallydo variety shows, showcases.

(15:53):
We also have a summer campthat we do in, in July.
Is that run for several weeksand they all the kids come,
or most of the kids come?
Yes, yes. It's actually two weeks
Monday through Saturday, and then atthe end of the two weeks we have a,
a performance.
Okay. And are they honing their skills?

(16:14):
Yes, absolutely. Honingthe skills and learning,
you know, they're learningby, by putting on a show.
So that makes it more excitingrather than just classes.
So they're looking towards a goal andthen they get very excited for the
performance, so they really workhard on, on the singing, acting,

(16:37):
dancing, live performanceand that sort of thing.
So it works really well doing it that way,
way developing their performingarts skills while working on a show.
Wonderful. What does the,
what does the future have in storefor the performance theater for young
artists?
Well, we're, you know,
keeping it going and we're alreadyplanning our shows for next year.

(17:03):
We've been up at Po Pavilion since 2005,
so we're still there.
And as long as we have funding and the
the means to, to do it,then we'll keep on doing it.
Wonderful. Well, Marta Dewey with thePerformance Theater for Young Artists.
Thank you. Thank you so muchfor being our guest on the road.

(17:24):
Okay. Well thank you. It was a pleasure.
Absolutely. We've loved, loved learningabout you and, and the organization,
so thank you.
Thank you.