Metropolitan Educational Theatre Network is a non-profit educational organization committed to providing young people with the unique opportunity to be active participants in the dramatic process as actors, singers, and dancers. It grows out of a desire to delight and instruct in beneficial ways which often enhance a child’s view of self and his or her ability to relate effectively to others. The
instruction is based on a thorough understanding of the child’s mind, emotions, and the mastery of techniques which seek to give a student positive and unforgettable experiences. Urban, the organization’s founder, has designed a program which provides children with high quality creative learning experiences in the theatre arts. These experiences contribute to personal growth and self-confidence, stimulate interest in others, encourage meaningful group relationships, and strengthen skills in listening, speaking, observation, and body coordination. The program builds on children’s vast natural abilities by asking them to use their creative energies and imaginations. Weekly workshops build a spirit of confidence and cooperation within the theatrical setting. Children learn their own strengths and those of their fellow actors through self-expression, creative dramatics, and theatre games. They find they have “nothing to fear but fear itself” in the supportive group environment. Instruction is based on the commitment to building each participant’s self-confidence. It includes improvisation, pantomime, voice projection, stage movement, acting, singing, dancing, and auditioning techniques. By production time, all these elements come together in a Broadway-style musical at a standard which consistently receives enthusiastic reviews. Everyone who registers and completes the workshops is assured a role on stage in production performances. Production casts have varied from 100 to 300 young people ranging in age from four to college age, including many parents and older relatives of the young people in the cast. The company has performed in high school, college, community and dinner theatres, large outdoor tents, and various professional theatrical venues throughout California, New York, Australia, and New Zealand for over thirty years.
