‘It gives them the confidence to go beyond’: Stage Right aims to welcome students of all backgrounds with grant

Stage Right in Greensburg distributes $30,000 in scholarships and financial aid to its students each year.

About a third of a $175,000 grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation in Pittsburgh will help the nonprofit theater company continue supporting students of all socioeconomic backgrounds, Executive Director Anastasia Robinson said.

Stage Right works with local school districts to identify recipients for scholarships to its annual summer camp, which typically costs $600, Robinson said. Financial aid is also available to students who need help paying for classes, workshops or private lessons.

“I think that it’s just really important to give those kids the opportunity to experience live theater in a really supportive and welcoming environment,” Robinson said. “We can help hone their skills if they want to go into theater, but I think it also helps just in life in general with communication, working together, public speaking and cooperation.”

Stage Right works with about 300 students and performs five or six productions per year. Its professional company performs two or three shows per year, Robinson said.

The nonprofit also hosts about 50 short performances at various locations in the community throughout the year.

Meghan Scalise, president of the Stage Right board of directors, said the grant also will support scholarships for the nonprofit’s Breaking Barriers program, which invites students of all abilities to participate in theater, including those with autism, Down syndrome and ADHD. The program is funded by the Massey Charitable Trust.

Stage Right is working to partner with an occupational therapist and a special education teacher to ensure they are meeting the needs of all learners in its classes, Scalise said.

“We’ve done our research. There are studies out there showing that art education improves quality of life,” Scalise said, “not just with what they’re doing on the stage, but on and off the stage just as human beings, making people self-confident and responsible citizens.”

Scalise has seen the benefits of theater education through her 10-year-old daughter, who was recently diagnosed with ADHD. When she first started preschool, she struggled with speech. Friday, she sang her first solo in a performance of “Cinderella.”

“It’s given her strength and courage to perform on stage,” Scalise said.

Scalise has seen plenty of students experience a similar transformation.

“These were kids that just couldn’t organize themselves, even in a dance studio. They’d be kind of bouncing off the walls. Then they get on this stage, and they have all the confidence in the world and they’re our strongest singer, our strongest dancer,” she said. “It gives them confidence to go beyond there, to go back into their regular classroom and be a productive student.”

The grant will also go toward marketing expenses and studio equipment upgrades, Robinson said. The nonprofit, which generates around $613,000 in expenses each year, is in need of new dance floors, keyboards and sound system equipment, she said.

Ticket sales and student tuition alone are not enough to support these expenses, Robinson said.

“So many community theaters are falling off the map just because of the funding. I think the pandemic played a role in that,” she said. “People’s priorities have shifted, but also it’s become a culture where you stay in and watch Netflix.

“People don’t buy tickets in advance. It’s all those kinds of things, which is why it’s really important that this grant came through.”

(Editor’s note: This story has been updated.)