This year a number of Wesleyan students have been working with the staff at Oddfellows Playhouse, a non-profit youth theater, to help the organization run its year-long program of theater classes, workshops, productions, and neighborhood-based troupes.
Two thousand children and young adults, ages ranging from 6 to 20 years old, travel from all over central Connecticut to take participate in the various programs at Oddfellows, located at 128 Washington Street.
To accommodate this great number of participants, Oddfellows recruits University students to be administrative interns, teaching assistants, and volunteers. According to Program Manager Dominick Grant, there are currently five work-study administrative interns, 12 teaching assistants, and 30 volunteers from Wesleyan.
The administrative interns help out with mailings, filing, and other office jobs, according to Grant. The teaching assistants are assigned to a teacher at Oddfellows and work with one of the neighborhood troupes for the entire academic year on developing performing arts skills. The neighborhood troupes program works with youth in Maplewood Terrace, Santangelo Circle, The North End, and Chatham Court.
“The teachers really incorporate the [teaching assistants] into the class,” Grant said. “The T.A.’s often lead the class in theater games or group projects.”
Students who work at Oddfellows in a volunteer role help out in a number of capacities, including serving as musical directors, assistant directors, stage techs, stage managers, and working at the customer box office.
“We like Wesleyan students a lot,” Grant said. “They have lots of energy. The work we do is pretty exciting—we get to run around and have fun.”
In fact, there is a long-standing relationship between the Wesleyan community and Oddfellows, starting in 1975 when two Wesleyan students founded the theater, according to Grant.
Students interested in working or volunteering at Oddfellows do not need to have a theater background. According to Grant, the only requisite is that students enjoy working with kids.
Wil Renderos ’05, one of the three teaching assistants working with the Santangelo Troupe this year, said that he finds his job fulfilling.
“For an hour we try to help the kids forget the troubles at home and at school,” Renderos said. “At the beginning of each session we debrief and talk about anything that is on their minds.”
Renderos, who works between eight and 10 hours a week for Oddfellows, said he also works additional hours supervising the troop members on the bus to and from the Playhouse.
“We have different activities planned out for the kids each week,” Renderos said. “Sometimes it’s arts and crafts and sometimes it’s performing.”
Next week the Santangelo troop will end the year with an open class for their families, where they might perform the Smash Mouth hit song, “[Hey Now, You’re An] All Star,” a song the troop has practiced singing as a group for the past couple of weeks.
Known to many Wesleyan Students as “D.J. Ill Wil,” Renderos will be spinning records this Saturday at the Maplewood Troop’s end-of-the- year event called Fiesta. Fiesta is the troop’s annual neighborhood picnic for the participating children and their families. The families will prepare the food and desserts for the picnic and the troop will perform a rendition of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” a song that the kids have found particularly inspiring.
Naomi Ekperigin ’05 said she initially began working with Oddfellows last year by participating in a friend’s senior thesis project
“I loved the experience because I love theater, and I could finally share my passion with people who were just starting to discover acting,” Ekperigin said.
Now, in her second year at Oddfellows, Ekperigin is working with a class of 14 children from ages six to eight. They are performing an adaptation of “The Three Little Pigs” and “The Billy Goat Gruff.”
“It is very challenging, trying to get little kids to focus and learn lines, but it is remarkably rewarding,” Ekperigin said. “The children are so excited to be at Oddfellows, and are gaining confidence along with basic skills in reading and writing.”
According to Grant, many students, like Ekperigin, return to Oddfellows for a second year.
“Some students stick around for 4 years,” Grant said. “Most [Wesleyan students] who come through those doors get hooked one way or another.”
Leave a Reply