Submitted by Oddfellows Playhouse
(August 15, 2025) — Registration is now open for Fall Classes at Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater, located at 128 Washington Street in Middletown! Beginning September 8, 2025 classes in theater and circus will be offered for toddlers to twenty-year-olds. Teenagers are invited to audition for our fall mainstage production.
Teen Repertory Company (ages 14 – 20) will hold auditions for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet on September 8, 2025 and September 11, 2025 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. This is a unique opportunity to work with ARTFARM Artistic Director and Shakespeare specialist Marcella Trowbridge on one of the great works of the western canon. Teens are asked to pre-register for one of the two audition evenings, to arrive on time, and plan to stay for the entire time. Everyone who auditions and commits to the rehearsal and production schedule will be cast in the show. Regular rehearsals will be Mondays and Thursdays, 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Performances will be November 13 – 15, 2025 and November 21 – 22, 2025.
Circophony Teen Circus (ages 12 – 20) offers serious circus training for young performers. No previous experience is required. Tuesday evenings, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. is Acro Focus with Naja Muller, including stretching, flexibility, partner acrobatics, tumbling, mini-tramp and contortion. Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., is Juggling Plus with Joel Melendez, featuring juggling, balancing, rola bola, unicycles, rolling globe, diabolo, flower sticks and other forms of object manipulation and performance skills. Students may register for one or both evenings.
For our youngest Oddfellows, Saturday Classes feature Acrobabies (ages 15 months – under 3 years with caregiver; 9:15 a.m. to 9:55 a.m.); Mixed-Up Fairy Tales (ages 3 – 6, 10:00 a.m. to 10:55 a.m.); Circrobatics (ages 3 – 6, 11:00 a.m. to 11:55 a.m.); and Circrobalance (ages 5 – 8, 12:00 Noon to 1:00 p.m.). Classes start September 13, 2025 and continue through a Share Day on November 22, 2025 (Ten weeks total. No classes on October 11, 2025). All Saturday classes are taught by Meg Berritta.
After-School classes for ages 6 – 14 begin September 15, 2025 and will run for ten weeks this fall, culminating in a “Share Week” November 17 – 20, 2025. Most classes run from 4:50 p.m. to 5:50 p.m.
Stage One classes for ages 6 – 8 include “Intro to Shakespeare (Bard for Beginners)”; Circus I; Heroes and Villains; and Contortion and Flexibility (open to ages 6 – 11)
Stage Two classes for ages 9 – 11 include Acting in Motion; Circus II; Getting Creative With Shakespeare; Story to Stage; Contortion and Flexibility (open to ages 6 – 11); and Hip Hop Dance (open to ages 9 – 14).
Stage Three classes for ages 12 – 14 include Theater Design; Introduction to Commedia dell’ Arte; Theater Improvisation: Scenes and Games; and Complete Actor III (all of these classes meet 4:30 p.m. to 5:50 p.m.), as well as Hip Hop Dance (this class is for ages 9 – 14 and meets 4:50 p.m. to 5:50 p.m.j).
For more details on times, tuition and class descriptions, please go to www.oddfellows.org. If you have specific questions, email info@oddfellows.org or call (860) 347-6143. Financial Aid is available for all programs. It is Oddfellows Playhouse policy that the arts should be available to every young person regardless of ability to pay – no one is turned away for lack of funds.
Oddfellows Playhouse, founded in 1975, is Connecticut’s oldest and largest performing arts program for young people. Oddfellows programs are made possible with support from the Middletown Commission on the Arts; Connecticut Office of the Arts/DECD; City of Middletown; The Fund for Greater Hartford; American Savings Foundation; State of Connecticut Judicial Branch (Youth Violence Prevention); Middletown Youth Services Bureau; Community Foundation of Middlesex County; Liberty Bank Foundation; Middletown Health Department; Maximilian E. and Marion O. Hoffman Foundation; Middlesex United Way; George and Grace Long Foundation; and many generous individual donors.
