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Desert Foothills Theater's
Gecko Teatro!
Students perform in DFT Gecko Teatro/Desert
Foothills Community Education Summer Theater Camp Production of
Once Upon
a Dream: The Classic Cinderella Story by Dave & Jean Perry,
July 2,
2008.
Desert
Foothills Theater's Gecko Teatro is a youth theater program
that provides theater education and performance opportunities for youngsters
in the Cave Creek, Carefree, North Scottsdale and Northeast Phoenix areas DFT Gecko Teatro
provides training in
stage performance skills for children ages kindergarten through eighth
grades and technical theater training for students in grades 6-8.
 Miss
Brenda B. Waffle was DFT Gecko Teatro’s founder. Miss Waffle was previously the
owner and director of the award winning Columbus Youth Theater in
Columbus, Ohio for ten years. For over fifteen years, Miss Waffle was a teacher for the Cave Creek Unified School District. Miss Waffle
felt that serving as DFT Gecko Teatro director was the perfect opportunity to combine her two great passions
of teaching children and theater. Miss Waffle had been on stage acting
since the third grade. She acted in or directed over forty shows during
this time period. DFT Gecko Teatro will soon begin searching for a new
director to replace Miss Waffle who passed away July 2008.
 During
the fall and spring of 2006/2007, we began the development of DFT Gecko
Teatro through support of the Black Mountain Elementary School/Kiwanis
Black Box Theater and BMES Drama Club. That work culminated with a
presentation of a show entitled Rats! by Jean and Dave Perry,
performed in the newly finished theater space and supported by Desert
Foothills Theater volunteers and staff.
Our inaugural summer class,
Introduction to Theater, presented the musical Save The Plants by
playwright Vincent Delaney in June of 2007.
Classes run through the
school year and are offered at a variety of
elementary and middle school sites as before or after school programs in conjunction
with Community Education. Some of our course offerings this
 include, Introduction to Theater (Theater I), Theater II (enrollment by audition
only), Acting Up (For students in grades K-2), and Technology and Set Design as
well as Musical Theater (for Middle School students).
In 2008, our summer program expanded to three
four-day weeks. Camp work included classes in acting, theater movement
and voice. The camp culminated in a production of Once Upon a
Dream: The Classic Cinderella Story by Dave & Jean Perry. Thirty
five students participated in our inaugural summer camp.
For further information on theater
classes or to volunteer to work with our Youth Theater, please contact
Meribeth Reeves.
More pictures from Once Upon
a Dream: Click to enlarge.
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Click here for
Class Schedule
Gecko Teatro
Staff/Instructor
Brenda Waffle, Director, Instructor
Instructors
Darlene King
Meribeth Reeves
Wes
Sullivan
Lori Vander Maten
DFT Gecko Teatro is supported in
part by:
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