June/July 2011 Vol 27 No 5 Golfers photo by Rhonda Lee
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Kaleidoscope Youth Theater: A Mother-Daughter Dream Team By Kim Thielman-Ibes It is hard for Tracy Hostetter and her mother, Claudia Shouse, not to finish each other’s sentences when they talk about Kaleidoscope Youth Theater’s nonprofit drama school. Their enthusiasm for teaching their drama students, ages four to eighteen, and passion for bringing their imagination into action bubble over and engage everyone in their path.
What started in the mid-1990s as an afterschool volunteer activity for her two daughters’ drama and dance activities has evolved into a fullfledged career for Tracy and her seventy-year-old mother. After graduating with honors from MSU in Art Education and English Literature, Tracy was asked to coach the drama club at Hawthorne School, where she wrote and directed over twenty original shows involving up to seventy students per show. Word soon got out, and other Bozeman schools including Chief Joseph and Wilson asked Tracy to coach their art, theater, and drama clubs. In 2000, the theater chair for Bozeman’s Sweet Pea Festival was so impressed with the Claudia Shouse (l.) and her daughter Tracy Hostetter (r.) share their passion for live theater with one of their students Ruby-Rae Sexton (c.). Students learn all aspects of theater including acting, costume design, set design, and lighting. (Photo provided by Tracy Hostetter)
quality of the performances and originality of the shows that she asked the talented duo to bring their children’s theater to perform at the festival. “People saw us at the Sweet Pea Festival and wanted their kids involved, so we started teaching Saturday classes and added two summer theater camps,” says Tracy. With her talented and musical mother by her side, Tracy formed Kaleidoscope Youth Theater while still coaching drama and teaching at Bozeman’s schools. Within a few years, Tracy and her mother were working at this nonprofit theater full time, adding after school programs and increasing the number and variety of summer theater camps. “Because we’ve been involved in teaching drama for so long, our nonprofit theater took off before we really thought it would,” says Claudia. During Tracy’s tenure at Chief Joseph, Claudia assisted students in learning their lines. It quickly evolved, and Claudia began working with her daughter to write original musical scores. She then became their chief production accompanist and pre-school drama teacher. “Most of my friends are going to leisure communities or traveling, and here I am teaching first graders and I really can’t leave because I’ve got a show to put on,” (Continued on page 38)