Barry Kornhauser knows theater. With a career that spans decades, he has joined Millersville University to spearhead the Family Arts Collaborative. In his newest role at Millersville, Kornhauser is doing something important, working with youth and the community to give underserved, underrepresented and persons with disabilities the opportunity to express themselves through theater. As Kornhauser notes, it has been a very busy year since he started at Millersville. Fam Fun Fest is a new series of performing arts events for families and social service agencies, offering free tickets so that they can attend theater productions. It’s a unique program, covering the theater arts, including theater, dance, music, puppetry, storytelling, circus and more.
Bringing theater to everyone By Laura Knowles
(Above) Passionate about the arts, Barry Kornhauser is the creative force behind the family arts collaborative program. The summer theater camp stressed hands-on creative activities, including communication skills and building trust among your fellow actors.
10 Review Fall 2013
“We try to bring real diversity in a number of ways, not just in the variety of genres presented,” says Kornhauser, noting that an example is a bilingual musical in Spanish and English for the area’s Latino community. “Dancing Wheels” is a physically integrated dance company that features wheelchair performers, while several performances in the program did not use the spoken word, making it possible for deaf audiences and those with limited understanding of English to comprehend the visual shows. As Kornhauser adds, an hour before each performance, hands-on creative activities are presented to audiences. The activities were developed by Millersville University education students in Dr. Richard Kerper’s creativity class. In many cases, work-