Brad Tones wasn't expecting this kind of success until the second year.
Last April, when he helped to launch PLAY - or Professional Live Arts For Youth - the organization hoped to roll out its programs over time.
A year later, there are wait lists.
"We're really, really grateful for our first year," Tones said. "We didn't think the need would be so strong, so fast."
In the Tri-Cities alone, PLAY offers affordable after-school arts classes at four schools: Miller Park, Mary Hill and Central elementaries and Pitt River middle. Last month, for spring break, it also had a camp at the Terry Fox Theatre.
That Port Coquitlam venue is where PLAY will celebrate its first anniversary next week, hoping to raise at least $5,000 for operations.
And it will have a big name to help with the cause: Canadian comedian Colin Mochrie of the television hit show Who's Line Is It Anyway? will perform a routine with his wife, Deb McGrath.
Tones said the famous duo was invited by members of a Burnaby church who know McGrath.
The Ellesmere United Church also has an endowment fund that supports PLAY and was started as a legacy for parishioner and arts champion Barbara Howard. The Burnaby resident is better known as being the first black female athlete to represent Canada in international competition; she was also the first minority to teach for the Vancouver School Board.
Tones said PLAY currently serves kids aged four to 14; however, its mandate is to stretch from newborn to the age of 24, living across the Lower Mainland. Programs are half the cost of professional sessions (about $5 for 90 minutes) and scholarships are available for low-income families, Tones said.
Besides the Tri-Cities, PLAY also has arts sessions in Langley and Burnaby and, recently, it set up a comic book writing class for teens in North Vancouver. "We're going to keep expanding until the need stops," said Tones, a Maple Ridge resident.
For this summer, PLAY has lined up theatre intensives at Terry Fox Theatre and the Chief Sepass Theatre in Langley. And, this fall, it will introduce a new arts workshop designed specifically for kids with autism. Though the curriculum has yet to be set, "we already have a wait list for that, too," Tones said.
Tickets to PLAY's first anniversary show at the Terry Fox Theatre (1260 Riverwood Gate, Port Coquitlam) are $50, or $75 for VIP (includes seating in the first three rows plus a meet and greet with Colin Mochrie and Deb McGrath). Call 604-612-9713 or visit terryfoxtheatre.org. To win tickets via The Tri-City News, enter online at [email protected] by April 5 at 5 p.m.
