History of ShowBiz Kidz

ShowBiz Kidz is a theatrical training program for children ages four to twelve. It was founded in February 1997 by Carol-Ann Black to expose children from all social and economic backgrounds to the performing arts. ShowBiz Kidz, or SBK (as the students have affectionately dubbed it) started working out of the Wyandotte Movie Theatre with rehearsals on Saturday mornings, when the movie theater was dark. Our first show was "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and the cast was also responsible for serving on a technical committee choosing from Props, Sets, or Costumes. Our next show was "The Little Mermaid" featuring a cast of undersea creatures. During "Alice in Wonderland", the Wyandotte Theatre was foreclosed on and we were lucky enough to rehearse at the First Presbyterian Church of Wyandotte, and to perform at Taylor Center High School. The City of Taylor Parks and Recreation offered us a new home and we presented our first Beginning Acting and Intermediate Acting classes during our 1998 summer session. "Li'l Abner" was our next offering, and then we lost Taylor Center High School due to asbestos removal. Fortunately, the Wyandotte Theatre had been bought to be refurbished and used as a regional performing arts center and our next production, "Faery Tale Theatre: The Twelve Dancing Princesses and The Spell of Sleeping Beauty" featured our first split cast with youngsters ages four to twelve in the first act, and teenagers thirteen to eighteen in the second act.

We were approached by Riverview Recreation to teach acting classes after one of the Recreation directors saw our production of "Faery Tale Theatre". That was when ShowBiz Kidz started offering a tri-level program of Beginning Acting, Intermediate Acting, and Play Production. Students needed to complete both Beginning and Intermediate Acting before they could take part in the play productions, thus ensuring that every student had the same basic skill set before appearing in a full-length play or musical. Beginning Acting taught the basics of acting through the study of scenes from plays based on classic childrens stories and fairy tales. Intermediate Acting delved into characterization and script analysis by exploring monologues from a broad spectrum of plays that represent both modern and classical time periods. Both classes combined at the end of each term in a public recital that showcased what the students had been diligently working on during the eight-week term. Recitals usually offered some form of dinner or buffet with the performance. Past recitals included a "Mad Hatter's Tea Party" with tea, punch, finger sandwiches, cakes and cookies, and "The Tooth-Fairy's Worst Nightmare" featuring an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet with coffee or punch.

While in rehearsals for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "School House Rock Live Junior!", the Wyandotte Theatre regional arts center ran out of money, and we were once again left without a performance space. Riverview Recreation was approached to see if they would sponsor not only our acting classes, but our play productions as well. We performed out of Seitz Middle School, and did recitals at the Riverview Community Center for the next five years. We performed some of our most popular shows during this very productive period, including "A Midsummer Night's Dream", "School House Rock Live Junior!", "The Phantom Tollbooth", "Into the Woods Junior" (1999 & 2001), "The Faery Tale Theatre 2: The Emporer's New Clothes and Beauty and the Beast", "Rosemary for Remembrance", "Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella", "Bugsy Malone Junior", "How To Eat Like A Child And Other Lessons In Not Being A Grown-Up", "Charlotte's Web", "On Time", "Faery Tale Theatre 3: Rapunzel" and "Pocahontas".

During this time we also received some awards and accolades: The ShowBiz Kidz 1999/2000 season was recognized by Riverview Mayor Tim Durand, the Riverview City Council and Barbara Hammerle, Recreation Director, with a special Certificate of Acheivement. Our cast of "Cinderella" waltzed and sang their way through 90° heat during the City of Wyandotte's 2000 Fourth of July Parade to earn the "Best In Show" trophy and a $250 check. Our Artistic Director, Carol-Ann Black, was named YWCA's 2000 Woman of Acheivement in Arts/Communication and received her award at a luncheon with special guest, anchorwoman Monica Gayle.

Lincoln Park Parks and Recreation became our next home. We continued to offer our acting classes and introduced our summer workshop program. We debuted our family dinner theatre series with "BOO! Thirteen Scenes From Halloween" (which included an audience costume contest complete with prizes and a walk-through haunted house on the upper level of the Community Center during intermission) and the family classic, "Pollyanna". Due to limited facility usage at Lincoln Park, it was decided to part ways and we performed "Faery Tale Theatre 4: The Twelve Dancing Princesses and The Spell of Sleeping Beauty" and "The Adventures of Doctor Doolittle" at Jo Brighton Skills Center while renting rehearsal space from Rockwood Recreation Department and Wane County Community College. Our summer performing arts program, Camp ShowBiz, was launched the summer of 2005, at the Rockwood Community Center.

Angela Romanowski, principal of Trillium Academy, saw our production of "The Adventures of Doctor Dolittle" and invited us to work in partnership with her school at their brand new facility on Racho Road in Taylor. Thus our business partnership with Trillium Academy was born! Every year we co-produce "The Haunted Theatre" with the Trillium Academy Drama Club to raise funds for the Royal Majestic Theatre Building Improvement Fund. This venture has allowed us to purchase lighting equipment that was permanently installed in the theatre. We offer a special discount program to the staff, students and families of Trillium Academy to attend any production mounted at the Royal Majestic Theatre. During the summer of 2007, reconstruction has been done on the theatre to include bigger dressing rooms, theatre storage and a brand-new box office!

It was decided in 2006 to drop the acting class requirements and let any child with a curiosity about theatre to become involved in our live stage productions, regardless of experience. Every student enrolled is guaranteed a part in the play and we live up to our motto, "Where every kidz' a Star!" by ensuring each cast member is given their turn in the spotlight. Our productions at Trillium Academy have included the disco-dancing fairy tale "Puss In Boots", the audience-pleasing "Disney's Jungle Book for Kids", "The Wizard of Oz (RSC version)", "Pocahontas", "Beauty and the Beast" and this summer's production of the gangster musical, "Bugsy Malone Junior".

ShowBiz Kidz runs year-round and typically does three productions per year: a fall musical, a straight play in the spring, and they combine with ShowBiz Starz to do a big-cast summer musical. Auditions are held the first week after an intensive Audition Workshop where each student is prepared for the audition with monologues and/or scenes and taught song and dance combinations, if it is a musical. Emphasis is given to scripts that offer a wide variety of parts and a chance to put each student's unique talent to good use.

Our 2007-2008 season consists of the musical adaptation of the Ugly Duckling, "HONK! Junior" in the fall 2007, the beloved straight play of "Charlotte's Web" in spring 2008, and a co-production of "Li'l Abner" with ShowBiz Starz in the summer of 2008.