Filling a Growing Need

My experience at the conservatory was really groundbreaking for me. For so many years, I have been purely selftaught and was making so many rookie mistakes in my work…but with my time at the conservatory, I have grown so much. Without the conservatory, I don’t know where I would be.

-Jacob Cardona, conservatory student

Conservatory Growth Being a student of the arts requires creativity, collaboration and communication. Each and every day, we are proud to offer students of every age the opportunity to grow as artists and passionate, contributing members of society. After our conservatory’s opening in January 2017, we experienced a 40% increase in enrollment in just one year. In our second semester, we tripled our number of offerings from 25 to 78 classes in music, drama, dance and technical theatre. Our exceptional faculty of master teaching artists from Boston, Providence, Hartford, New York and the surrounding area doubled in size, growing quickly from 10 to 20 professional artist-educators who provide our students with the very best in performing arts education. This fall, we are training and educating over 280 students each week, a 55% increase in just 18 months. We attribute this growth and success to our continued commitment to cultivating individual attention, igniting creativity and inspiring confidence through arts education. As we continue to expand our reach in the area, financial assistance has become even more important. In our 2017-2018 season we were pleased to provide area students in need with over $20,000 in scholarships to pursue their training in the performing arts in the heart of Worcester’s Theatre District.

Ballet Arts Worcester Merger On July 1, 2017, Ballet Arts Worcester (BAW) found a new home at 551 Main Street as the dance department in our conservatory for the performing arts. BAW’s founder and artistic director, Jennifer Agbay, was hired as our director of dance after her decade-long relationship with our organization. Along with her talented faculty and students, we were proud to welcome a number of Agbay’s established programs into our conservatory.

The Nutcracker In 2017, the annual production of The Nutcracker, under the artistic direction of Jennifer Agbay, became an official conservatory production and provided over 150 local dance students with the opportunity to perform in our world-class venue. Furthermore, students shared the stage with professional principle dancers from Orlando Ballet Company and, for the first time, Boston Ballet. We were thrilled to bring this production in-house and will continue to invest in it as a service to the local community for years to come. Many thanks go to the dozens of parent volunteers who help to make this production possible.

Kennedy Center Partners in Education In April 2018, The Hanover Theatre Conservatory was selected to participate in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Partners in Education Program, a nationally recognized program designed to help arts organizations develop and expand education partnerships with local school systems. The theatre is the first venue in Massachusetts to be accepted into this prestigious program, which will assist in the expansion of The Hanover Theatre’s relationship with the Worcester Public Schools (WPS). It is rooted in the belief that supporting the professional learning of teachers is an essential component of promoting the inclusion of arts in education. The WPS deputy superintendent,

Dr. Susan O’Neil joined Troy Siebels, the theatre’s president and CEO and Meghan Montaner, director of education at the Partners in Education Institute in Washington, D.C. this past spring.

Worcester County Dance Festival This celebratory festival hosted its fourth annual performance on our stage for the first time this past spring. Worcester County Dance Festival is an evening of diverse dance celebrating New England’s talented schools. Companies were offered a supportive atmosphere for a creative exchange of ideas, master classes and performance opportunity. Twelve groups performed more than 30 pieces ranging from Bharatanatyam, Latin, jazz, flamenco, Chinese Mandarin, Greek, contemporary and ballet.

Pernet Family Health Last spring, we were awarded a grant from the Worcester Arts Council to facilitate a Creative Drama Workshop in collaboration with Pernet Family Health Services. Our outreach programs coordinator, Sharon Hart, facilitated a six-week series of sessions for 12 youth from Pernet Family Health Services. The students worked in groups to identify and express their feelings through creative writing, movement and acting exercises. This workshop was an opportunity for these young people to see how theatre can be used as a tool for expressing their ideas individually and as a group. At the end of the program, the group presented their version of the story “Cinderella” and incorporated experiences from their lives, such as bullying and peer pressure. The feedback from the students involved was incredibly positive. The workshop was provided at no cost to the students.

Master Classes In the 2017-2018 season, our conservatory students took advantage of 11 different master classes with visiting productions like A Christmas Story, A Christmas Carol, Cabaret, Shaping Sound, Something Rotten!, Jersey Boys, Moscow Festival

Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty, Bright Star and The King & I. These master classes are free and exclusive for conservatory students. We strive to provide our young talent with the opportunity to speak with and learn from touring professionals so that they may gain a better understanding of what it means to have a career in the performing arts.

Pas de Deux In January 2018, we launched our first pas de deux (partnering) class for male and female ballet students. At the end of the year, the students demonstrated a wonderful presentation of communication, partnership and trust in dance in our Spring Reflection performance. The Hanover Theatre Conservatory is the only performing arts school in central Massachusetts to offer a pas de deux class.

Boys & Girls Club Ballet Program We were very proud to continue this incredible outreach program initiated by BAW. Last season, a conservatory faculty member visited the Worcester Boys & Girls Club each week and provide ballet instruction for 11 students. The conservatory supplied the students with ballet shoes and dancewear in order to further support their training, and the students performed in our end of year Spring Reflection performance.

Youth Summer Programs Our Youth Summer Programs were as popular as ever this year with long-standing waitlists for our teen and pre-teen programs in musical theatre, which performed Beauty & the Beast and Beauty & the Beast JR, respectively. We were proud to win the Baystate Parent 2018 “Best of” award for Best Theatre Program/ Camp once again. New this year, we held summer dance programs, including a pointe intensive, drop-in ballet classes and week-long summer dance intensives for ages 5-18. Between all of these wonderful programs, our conservatory studios and stage were kept busy with an estimated 180 students and 18 interns.