INPERSON
SEASONS
Love
of
Amanda Rhoades
BY PAUL GLASSER
Bethel Park musical director hopes to parlay experience into a career.
A
manda Rhoades wants to use her
experience directing several musicals
at St. Thomas More Church in Bethel
Park to open her own children’s theater after
she graduates from college.
Rhoades is currently a sophomore at
California University of Pennsylvania where
she is studying musical theater. She began
directing musicals at St. Thomas More in
2014 in order to receive the Girl Scouts Gold
Award. Rhoades says she wanted to provide
children in third to seventh grade with
the opportunity to develop an interest in
musical theater in a Christian setting. She has
directed four performances and will organize
another one next summer.
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Ten children participated in the first show
in 2014 and it grew to include more than
20 in this year’s summer performance. The
children had to learn song lyrics, dance steps,
and lines of dialogue. Rhoades let them have
a lot of input in how the performance would
be structured; for example, they could come
up with their dance moves.
“The kids are the ones who made the
show,” she says. “We just guided them along.”
They met twice a week to rehearse, and
Rhoades sometimes had to encourage the
children to memorize their lines. Instead
of charging admission at the performance,
audience members were asked to bring in
donations for the South Hills Interfaith
Ministries food bank, and each collection
brought in several hundred pounds, Rhoades
says.
One of the best parts was hosting a
cast party after each performance so the
participants could watch their performances,
Rhoades says. The children were very proud
of their achievements and got to see that
the hard work they put in paid off. She also
made sure the children appreciated all the
volunteers who helped with the lights and
sound system.
“I always teach the kids that the show
wouldn’t happen without them, but there
would be no show without anyone else along
the way,” Rhoades explains.