Junior Musical Theater Classes Encourage Kids to Take Spotlight

Jamie Fair is a classically trained vocalist and actor who may be playing her most important role yet as a musical theater teacher for children at

“I was working a lot in this area doing theater, opera and commercial work, and all of a sudden after three or four years of that, it seemed like opportunities to teach were falling in my lap,” Fair of said.

A voice major who graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, Fair comes from a family of public educators. Deciding to start her own junior musical theater classes for kids seemed like a natural progression of her career.

Every Tuesday, she teaches the junior musical theater class for children in second to fourth grade from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., while every Thursday she teaches musical theater classes to fourth through sixth grade children.

“Enrollment is ongoing—a lot of places want you to commit to 8 to 10 classes, but since today’s kids are so involved in so many extracurricular activities, I think it works better if we keep it to a month-to-month basis,” Fair said. “If you’re really busy in October, you can come back in November.”

Classes are divided into three sections—an acting warm-up with improvisation games, vocal warm-ups and music, then scene rehearsal, which can involve a few students working on a scene and getting feedback from peers or the whole class working on choreography.

“The kids’ enthusiasm is just infectious,” Fair said. “You cannot help but get a smile on your face at least a dozen times each class with the observations they come up with, and it certainly makes me go out and learn more about theatrical repertoire.”

Right now, the classes are working on scenes and songs from the musical, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”

For this coming year, she would like to incorporate in-class performances for friends and family.

“It gets them used to being onstage and it’s something they need to practice—even if it’s an audience of grandparents, brothers and sisters and friends,” Fair said.

The most rewarding part of the job—watching the children transform.

“To see their confidence grow and see how they become more sure of themselves, which may translate into them standing up for themselves in school—it’s been wonderful to watch them grow and to hope that maybe I had a tiny role in that,” she said.

For more information an to get involved, visit www.eastendperformingarts.org or call 412-327-1753.