on the cover . Born in Jersey City, Leyner is a trained ballet dancer, who pursued a professional career in New York and chose to start the children’s theater company more than 10 years ago, while raising her family. “I started directing kid’s musicals when I did ‘Annie’ at the Hoboken Charter School, the girl who played Annie was 7 at the time and turned 18 this week,” Leyner says. “I started Hoboken Children’s Theater nine years ago. “As a dancer, I tried to do the Broadway stuff,” Leyner says, “and every time I got new headshots I got pregnant. When I started this I did a movie.” Leyner’s children’s theater company and school attract kids from all over Hudson and she offers classes for kids of all ages. For the Kindergarten-2nd grade kids
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By Sally Deering
its “Songs and Scenes” 10 weeks of 45 minute classes where the little ones do songs and scenes from a show – which doesn’t sound like an easy thing to pull off with kids so young. “We have this wonderful teacher,” Leyner says, “and she can get these kids to do these shows. Nobody’s prompting them or pushing them on stage. They do it on their own.” A new session of spring classes begins March 19th and features classes for 2nd4th graders called “Sing! Dance! Act!” where the kids meet after school once a week for a 2-hour session. For 4th-6th graders, there’s a performance workshop called “Schoolhouse Rock Junior” for kids with “performance experience who are ready to seriously
focus on all aspects of a musical production. When the kids grow past these classes, they are ready to audition for the Junior Company of middle-school age kids and then the Senior Company of high schoolers. Classes usually run for 10 weeks with a performance for friends and family following each session. “Hoboken Children’s Theater offers performance -based classes,” Leyner says, “and by the end of each session they put on a production. While they’re learning the choreography, they’re getting acting lessons and dance basics. While they’re doing the choreography they’re learning the basics of ballet and dance terminology.” Julia Small, 16, a sophomore at High Tech High School and Hoboken con’t pg. 3
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