Over 25 years ago STAGES Co-Founder, Donald Cleland wanted to give the children of Washington Co. a fun and educational theatre experience during the summer, and Young Actors’ Summer Theatre (YAST) was born. Since then he’s worked with well over 1500 young people in the popular program.The program started in Forest Grove, then moved to Hillsboro and now STAGES is the 3rd theatre organization that holds YAST which serves young actors in grades 1 to 12. A two-week program, students engage in many theatre activities and games. They also create a play which is performed for the public at the end of the session. The basis of the plays are improvisational, thus no scripts are written. Students are free to create their own dialogue and characters.
In YAST students not only focus on the creativity of developing a play, but Cleland also emphasizes cooperation, team building, problem solving, confidence along with many other attributes which benefits people in their daily lives.If you’d like more information on YAST you can contact Donald Cleland by calling
503-504-4914 or email him at donaldcle@gmail.com.
