Local youth theater nonprofit o ers a ordable classes

Sisters teach their passion

BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

When Aspen Somers and her twin sister, Ashley, were kids, they watched an opera singer on television and fell in love with performance.

Now, at 19 years old, the sisters run Stagebugz Theatre, a nonprofit youth theater organization in Littleton.

“Our mission is really just to provide a fun, safe and positive performing experiences for kids,” Somers said. “We believe that theater can change lives and we want any kid whose life should be touched by theater to have that opportunity.”

In addition to fostering a love for performing arts, part of the organization’s mission is to make theater financially accessible to kids of all backgrounds. They have offered free community workshops to meet this goal since the organization started in March 2022.

Starting Feb. 13, they will also be offering pay-what-you-can classes at the Koelbel Library in Centennial.

“We really wanted anybody who was interested to be able to participate in our programs, and we didn’t want anyone to feel like there is any shame in needing financial help,” Somers said.

For these classes, participants can pay as much or as little as they can afford, Somers said. The idea is that some families will be able to pay enough to cover the costs of families who cannot pay, offering the same experience to all students regardless of financial status.

Somers said she and her sister hope this new format can help families as inflation and the repercussions of COVID continue to make money tight for many.

One of the pay-what-you-can classes is a weeklong acting intensive for children aged 10 to 16. The course, which will run Feb. 13 to Feb. 16, focuses on character development, script analysis and comedic timing and culminates in a public performance.

A class for younger children will prepare students to perform a Winnie the Pooh musical, with weekly rehearsals from March 1 until April 12.

Somers and her sister, who are both involved in theater at the University of Southern California, teach the classes. They are on a leave of absence this semester, which makes it possible for them to offer classes this spring.

The sisters know how to teach because they have both been involved in theater their whole lives.

“I had worked for a youth theater company the summer before last year,” Somers said. “We also both have directing experience from various opportunities that we’ve had throughout our lives. And then I think a lot of it was just things that we have learned from our experiences in theater.”

Amy Buteyn is a Littleton mother whose son, Noah, participated in several free community workshops and a summer camp with Stagebugz. She said the Somers sisters are one of the best things about the program.

“They’re always just so positive,” she said. “Some of the kids, you know, they’re new or they’re shy or they don’t necessarily want to do it and (the sisters are) just always so positive with all the kids.”

Noah said that after every class, he wanted to do another.

“I loved all of them,” he said.

Stagebugz provides a fun way to introduce kids to theater without a big commitment, especially because of the free community classes, Buteyn said.

“As a parent of two kids, summer camps and everything just get really expensive,” she said. “It’s kind of nice because (Noah) got like a little trial for free and then he could decide if he liked it. And then he did the summer one and he loved it.”

For Somers, who said she and her sister were both shy as children, theater has provided an outlet to grow more comfortable and confident. She said the most rewarding part of running Stagebugz is getting to watch kids experience that same growth.

“Every time we do a workshop or a camp and we see someone coming out of their shell or someone who never thought that they were interested… and by the end of it, they are begging to do another theater class - that’s not really anything that we expected that we would be able to do,” she said.

“It’s so rewarding to see kids’ lives be so affected by being involved in theater.”

There is still space in the upcoming spring pay-what-you-can classes. Participants can register at https://www.stagebugztheatre. com/classes.

If developers do not include a ordable units, the inclusionary housing ordinance will levy hundreds of thousands in fees against them to be paid to the city that can then be used on other a ordable housing-related projects. With upcoming development in the city, more than 2,500 proposed housing units will now be subject to the ordinance, presenting the potential for at least 125 a ordable units.

Littleton District 3 Councilmember Steve Barr said at the Nov. 1 council meeting that he is “not under any impression that the ordinance is going to solve housing a ordability in Littleton or south metro Denver,” but that it provides a critical tool for addressing the crisis.

Developers and others at the meeting voiced concerns about the ordinance making development too costly or di cult and warned it could result in a decrease in the overall available housing. Morgan Cullen, director of government a airs for the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, told the Littleton council that the ordinance could burden developers to the point where projects wouldn’t be pro table, resulting in no new developments.

“ e additional a ordable units required by this ordinance will not be built if developers and builders decide that Littleton is not a suitable place to invest in the future,” Cullen said.

However, Broom eld Housing Programs Manager Sharon Tessier said in an email that its inclusionary housing ordinance has resulted in 580 a ordable rental units and 43 a ordable for-sale homes in two years.

She said when the ordinance was ini-