Actor returns to share love of theater

SANDPOINT — If time spent on stage, backstage and in front of the stage count for anything in the job skills department, Sarah Caruso is eminently qualified to teach her craft.

Raised in Sandpoint, she literally grew up in front of an audience during the boom times for local theater when the calendar year was packed with musicals, children’s productions and stage plays. Things stayed that way through the time she went to high school and kept her hand in acting and singing.

When she left town to see the world — including a life that took her to San Francisco for several years — it was during a period when stagecraft had all but dried up in her hometown.

Caruso is back, hot on the heels of a theater resurgence that has created two separate production companies and an expanded slate of classes for actors and singers at the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint. Not surprisingly, she is in the middle of the action as this dramatic renaissance takes root.

This summer, she acted as musical director for the wildly successful run of Sandpoint Onstage’s production of “The Music Man.” With the school year upon us, Caruso now turns her attention to a pair of classes coming up at the conservatory — acting for Shakespeare and musical theater. In both cases, her focus is to pass a love for the art on to the next generation.

“Growing up in the local theater community was a positive environment and a safe outlet for me,” she said. “I feel like there’s a movement happening in Sandpoint with the performing arts and I’m really happy to be part of it.”

The musical theater class — which is open to all ages — is expected to fill up fast based on the large turnouts for and growing interest in recent major stage productions. On the surface, the acting for Shakespeare class might look like a tougher sell. Not so, according to Caruso, who already has packed the roster for two semesters with students ages 10 and up.

“A lot of people think Shakespeare is stuffy, but I feel like Bill is making a comeback,” she said. “I focus a lot on fun facts about Shakespeare himself and he wasn’t stuffy at all. Quite the opposite — he was a total hipster.”

After giving students a foundation in the important chapter of history that surrounds the Bard and his body of work, Caruso moves into theater games and the art of improvisation.

“It’s important for kids to be able to think on their feet,” the instructor explained. “If you lose a line, for instance, how do you work it out on stage?”

Equally critical to the study of Shakespeare is an introduction to the tricky twists and turns of speaking the Elizabethan tongue. Once that hurdle is cleared, the students can step into the rich world that sprung from the imagination of one of the greatest literary minds of all time.

“We’re doing excerpts from ‘Hamlet’ this first semester,” Caruso said, adding that, behind the serious psychological study that plumbs the depths of the title character’s soul, there is a fast-paced romp that’s perfectly suited to younger actors. “Hamlet is fun — there’s sword fighting and ghosts and crazy people. It’s appealing and it’s also considered to be the greatest play ever written.”

Because the Music Conservatory of Sandpoint operates using a 12-week trimester system, with the academic year broken into three parts, the acting for Shakespeare class will tackle excerpts from “Romeo and Juliet” in the second round of teaching and “Twelfth Night” in the third. Next summer, Caruso plans to put her young charges to work as they take the outdoor stage for a local presentation of Shakespeare in the Park.

The teaching direction is both innovative and original, thanks in large part to conservatory founding partner Karin Wedemeyer’s leadership style.

“Karin has given me an open door to do whatever I want,” said Caruso, who has hit the enrollment cap for the Shakespeare class for two consecutive trimesters. “I could have taken an existing curriculum, but I wanted it to be more organic and be inspired by the students.”

With the acting for Shakespeare class well established, Caruso will roll out what she calls her “pilot class” in musical theater.

“That’s my background, so I’m excited about offering this class,” she said. “It’s open to anyone, because musical theater can encompass a wide group of people and ages.”

The class will enjoy the advantage of having accompanist Chris Farrar on hand for rehearsals. A classically trained pianist, Farrar earned standout status as a member of the pit orchestra for the summer performances of “The Music Man.” At the end of the first 12-week session, the instructor will put her students in front of an audience for a Broadway Revue-style show.

“I chose not to focus on any one show for this pilot class until we can see where it goes and where I’m inspired to take it,” she said.

The timing for the start of the two theater classes coincides with the conservatory’s move to more capacious surroundings. After developing the program for a couple of years on the lower floor of Sandpoint’s historic City Hall building on the corner of Second and Main, the non-profit organization is taking its act upstairs, where the number of teaching studios will nearly double and a large multipurpose and performing area will become Caruso’s part-time domain.

Fully aware that her classes will become a de facto farm team for shows mounted by groups such as Sandpoint Onstage and 7B Productions — which plan a total of more than eight productions between them in the coming year — Caruso sees her primary work as that of preparing students for the broader stage of life itself.

“These are educational classes,” said Caruso, who also offers private voice lessons at the conservatory. “Yes, I’m helping young artists find their path and giving them a place to come and refine their talent, but, even if you don’t plan to go into theater, you learn things like self-confidence, interview skills and how to speak in front of people.

“All the world’s a stage, right?” she asked, borrowing a phrase from Shakespeare himself. “And these are life skills for that stage — tools that students can take outside the classroom and use in everyday life.”

The fall trimester for conservatory classes runs from Sept. 10-Dec. 8, with the Musical Theatre class scheduled for Wednesdays from 5-6:30 p.m. and Acting for Shakespeare slated for Thursdays from 5:30-7 p.m. Enrollment for both classes is capped at 16 students and early registration is encouraged.

For information, call (208) 265-4444 or visit: www.sandpointconservatory.org