Kids get in the sing and swing of things at theater workshop

SAUGUS – Two dozen young performers are busy singing, dancing and acting this week at a youth musical theater workshop presented by The Theatre Company of Saugus.The children have gathered at Cliftondale Congregational Church each day to practice songs and scenes from Disney – including “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins” – under the direction of local musical theatre professionals. They will then put on a musical variety show with song, dance, acting and monologue on Friday evening to showcase for their family and friends what they learned during the week.?This is our first year having a week-long workshop, but we?d like to make it an annual thing. It?s a good fundraiser for the group, and it?s good for the kids to come in and see something come together from the ground up,” said workshop co-producer and Theatre Company of Saugus board member Jessica Stockton. “We have the production of ?Oliver!? coming up in the fall, so we?d like to see the kids come in for auditions.”The performers in kindergarten through eighth grade kicked off the workshop with some warm up exercises on Monday morning. Once their vocal cords and muscles were ready to go, they were split into three groups according to age. The groups then rotated throughout the day, and while the youngest group worked on the singing section of the workshop, the middle group acted and the oldest group danced.Crystal Joyce of Peabody teaches the dance component of the workshop, which focuses on the fundamentals of dance and incorporating dance into theater.?With musical theater you?re singing and dancing so we?ll learn the basics of musical theater jazz and incorporating that into the songs,” she said. “We?ll teach them how to remember the dance and the song and be able to perform them together.”She started Monday?s workshop with the eight boys and girls in the oldest group, and they jumped right into learning a routine for the song “King of New York” from the Disney musical “Newsies.”Joyce has a bachelors degree in dance from Dean College and she plans to open her own dance studio in Peabody this September after teaching dance at Leanne Leslie?s School of Theatrical Dance in Lynn for ten years. She got involved with The Theatre Company of Saugus in November of 2009 when she was asked to choreograph the dances for their production of “The Wizard of Oz.”She added that each child will have the chance to do some type of a solo if they want, and there will also be group routines.Saugus High grad Bobby Imperato is instructing the acting portion of the workshop. He began the week by introducing a one-page script of “Cinderella” to the youngest group of 5- to 7-year-olds.?It?s a Mad Libs script and they have to fill in some of the nouns and adjectives, so they can be creative with it. I?m sure it will turn out to be a crazy version,” Imperato said.The children listed off things like their favorite animals and least favorite chores while Imperato filled in the blanks with their responses. Imperato read the script out loud once it was complete and the group members giggled when they heard that Cinderella was forced to clean kittens and her slippers turned into bunnies.Imperato added that the 8- and 9-year-olds will work on “The Lion King,” and the older kids will work on “12 Angry Pigs,” a fun version of 12 Angry Jurors where the pigs put the big, bad wolf on trial.He has been teaching workshops with local theater companies for nine years, and he was involved with The Theatre Company of Saugus while he was studying theater at Suffolk University. Most recently Imperato played the scarecrow for their production of “The Wizard of Oz” as well as Juror Three in “Twelve Angry Jurors.”Voice Teacher and Somerville resident Lori L?Italien is running the singing section of the workshop. L?Italien directed the Youth Musical Theatre Showcase presented in May 2011 by the Theatre Company of Saugus. The workshop?s other producer is Theatre Company of Saugus board member Joan