Broadway actors to help local youth theater program celebrate 50 years
By Kirsten Beard
Stagecrafters Youth Theatre, a youth dramatic arts program of the Orange Community Education & Recreation department, has long been renowned locally for its emphasis on performance development, instilling self-confidence and creating connections among fledgling performers – in addition to its quality productions.
The program is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer with a star-studded fundraiser, featuring performances from Stagecrafters alumni who have since gone on to perform on Broadway. Current Stagecrafters students will also be performing at the gala and fundraiser, “Broadway Comes Home: Celebrating 50 Years of Stagecrafters,” scheduled for Aug. 19 at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland.
Adam Miller, a co-chair of the event, says Stagecrafters is “the over-arching umbrella program” which includes participants interested in performance arts from preschool and up who live, learn and work throughout the region.
Other programs that fall under its umbrella include its show choir, community production, summer camp, musical production, cabaret troupe and Broadway buddies, which won second place for best adaptive programming in Ohio from the Ohio Parks and Recreation Association in 2021.
“No matter what the student’s interest is, we will find something for them to be interested in and that’s something we are really proud of,” Stagecrafters coordinator Wendy Scott-Koeth says. “There is a place for every kid here.”
Stagecrafters history
Stagecrafters second coordinator Tali Singer says the program first started as a single creative drama class on Saturdays. It quickly grew and turned into after-school classes for children around 1977, with multiple teachers.
Program founder Loe Goldwasser worked as a teacher at Moreland Hills Elementary School during the day in the theater program and ran programs after school, Singer says.
The program continued to grow during the 1980s, leading into the early 1990s when John Rubinstein and Scott-Koeth started the theater camp in 1989, Singer says. Scott-Koeth has been at the helm of the program since taking over for Goldwasser in 1993, and continued over the next 30 years to build Stagecrafters into what it is today. The program is now a part of Orange Community Education and Recreation under director Jill Korsok.
“In 1992, our first community production of ‘Peter Pan’ had 40 kids, and in 2024, our spring production had 185 – and that’s only one aspect of Stagecrafters, but … the growth in the program alone is huge,” Singer says.
Scott-Koeth adds, “We started out with 12 campers, and now we have three separate camps with about 60 kids in each camp.”
Over the years, the program has kept the philosophy of process over product, says Singer, also a Stagecrafters alum, reflecting on the idea of working together as a team, trying your best and creating self-confidence that will help build character.
The aim is to learn skills that will help along the path of life, not just in theater. And Singer says the success of the program is not just about those who reach the top of the theater industry, but also those who reach success in other industries with help from skills learned throughout their time at Stagecrafters.
“(Process over product) really means that when someone comes up to you and they say that their finger hurts, or whatever it is, you just stop and listen and take time out because it’s really important to them – whatever that may be – to take a minute,” Scott-Koeth says. “You hope it made a difference, and at the 50th, it will show that it did make a difference.”
Chernin 
Miller 
Fankhauser
Broadway actors recall experiences
For Broadway actor Max Chernin, Stagecrafters was more than just a theater program.
“It was an important stepping stone in my education as a young artist,” Chernin, who grew up in Shaker Heights, says in an email.
Now living in Brooklyn, N.Y., Chernin will return for the 50th celebration and will perform at the fundraiser.
“The most enticing thing about Stagecrafters was the teen production program,” he says. “That really felt like an all-star baseball team where all the best kids from the surrounding areas got together to do a show, and the shows they selected were challenging and sometimes risky to put on. It was so exciting to be a part of it all.”
Chernin, who graduated from Shaker Heights High School, began at Stagecrafters when he was 14 years old. He was part of the teen productions, summer productions, cabaret troupe and was a counselor at the summer camp.
Stagecrafters allowed him to step into challenging roles and enhance his skills, but also to create meaningful connections that have lasted over the years and throughout his time at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, Chernin says. Since graduation, he has appeared in “Bright Star” in 2016; “Sunday in the Park” in 2017; “Parade” in 2023; and is working on the production of “Fiddler on the Roof” at The Muny in Forest Park in St. Louis, Mo.
“It will be so fun to reconnect with all of our mentors and friends – I can’t wait to get everyone together in one room,” Chernin says.
Ben Fankhauser, a Broadway actor, coach and teacher, is another featured alumni of the program who will attend the 50th anniversary celebration. He graduated from Orange High School in Pepper Pike and Ithaca College in New York.
“Stagecrafters really instilled a love of community and friendship and family and teamwork, which has helped me survive the very different show business industry because jobs and roles come and go, but the communities that you create with your fellow cast mates, and the families that you nourish are the key to getting through the tough times,” Fankhauser says.
He remembers joining the program in the late 1990s with his cousins, going to the summer camp after moving to Orange from Zurich, Switzerland as a child.
During his time in the program, Fankhauser says he learned important empathetic skills of relating to fellow team members and supporting them, self-confidence and self-esteem that led him to where he is in his career now. Stagecrafters allowed him to have a first look at how to bond as a community and a family, says Fankhauser, now living in New York City.
“I really found that (family and community) at a time in my adolescence when I needed it most,” he says.
Fankhauser is currently working on a production of “Rent.” He says he is looking forward to not only seeing his old friends and cast members at the fundraiser, but also continuing the legacy of Stagecrafters and passing it on to the next generation. And, he wants the program to continue fostering an environment where everyone and anyone feels welcome.
“They have also cultivated a place where kids can work on self-confidence and self-esteem and for kids going into any aspect of life,” he says. “Those who went through Stagecrafters that didn’t pursue the musical business are that much better because of the teamwork and the family it instills.”
Jordan Brown, a Broadway actor who grew up in Orange, also says Stagecrafters was a stepping stone in his career.
“Without Stagecrafters, I don’t know what I would be doing,” he says.
Brown describes himself as a “theater kid from birth.” He would use his basement as his own personal theater with the help of his sister, until he was old enough to join Stagecrafters classes when he was in second grade. In third grade, he starred in his first community production.
He performed in every one since then through his time at Orange High School, until he went to the Boston University School of Theatre. He now lives in New York City and is working on Broadway’s “The Book of Mormon.”
“I am so grateful to Stagecrafters because it was really the first place that I got to understand what theater actually is,” Brown says. “I had seen shows and done something on my own, but I never had that experience. It was the first place I was in rehearsals, playing a role and all those things. I really understood what it means to be an actor.”
With Stagecrafters, Brown learned the true role of an actor, but also learned other skills that have impacted him to this day, he says. He learned to be himself in front of others, and to be confident in himself while supporting the team and cast. He thanked Scott-Koeth and Singer for their devotion to the program.
“Wendy and Tali are people who are so caring and open and want to see you shine and want to see you do your best,” Brown says.
The gala, legacy
The upcoming gala will honor Stagecrafters as well as Scott-Koeth and Goldwasser, Miller says.
“Picture it as Tony Awards meets telethon fundraiser meets high school reunion is really the way we’re looking at it,” Miller says. “It’s going to be a special night.”
The fundraising event will help fuel the program for decades to come through ticket sales, auction items like meeting the Broadway cast backstage and other giving opportunities that will be showcased, Miller says.
“Yes, it is a reunion, yes, we are so excited to see these people, but there is this whole fundraising element of it as well,” says Morgan Jacobs, co-chair of the event.
Miller and Jacobs have been with the program for over 30 years. Miller became involved in second grade, and Jacobs started in fourth grade. Jacobs also went on to work under Scott-Koeth as a student producer in high school. Miller and Jacobs now have their own children involved in the program and continue to volunteer for Stagecrafters.
“It has given us so much, and being able to co-chair this event feels like just a small way of giving back,” Miller says.
Stagecrafters touches hundreds of families across different communities, both geographically and socially, Scott-Koeth and Singer say. It aims to help students acquire skills that can be used outside of the theater world, as alumni who have become successful in industries such as medicine, teaching and law have demonstrated, they add.
“There are going to be pediatricians, teachers, lawyers, executives from Google, TV producers. …” Miller says of the 50th anniversary event. “People are coming to town from every walk of life who have been through this program.”
Brown says he is looking forward to seeing old friends and performing at the gala.
He notes the opportunities in the Cleveland area for youth theater are rather unheard of from what he has seen and heard throughout his college and professional career. Stagecrafters and other programs, such as the Mandel Jewish Community Center’s Playmakers Youth Theatre in Beachwood, afford opportunities to join productions at an early age, introducing the world of theater to young actors, he says.
“It’s an unbelievable gift that I had and so many others had,” Brown says. (C)
Publisher’s note: Adam Miller is a member of the Cleveland Jewish Publication Company Board of Directors.
More info
“Broadway Comes Home: Celebrating 50 Years of Stagecrafters” is at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 19 at KeyBank State Theatre, 1519 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Tickets range from $75 to $150, and there will be a VIP dinner at Playhouse Square. A $150 ticket includes premium seating and a drink ticket for the post-show dessert reception. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit shorturl.at/ZW58k. For more information on Stagecrafters’ programming, visit orangerec.com.
