Acting Out Theater Company is a nonprofit community theater that really puts the community in community theatre. Located in Lawrence at 56 Island Street, Acting Out Theater has been open to the public for over 20 years now.
Linda Schoonmaker, one of the founders of acting out has been involved since the early beginnings of the company as one of the founders of it and is the current president and resident director of the company. “I started Acting Out in 2002 and it was just on a whim. A friend of mine, we were both in a production of Fiddler on the Roof and we said we thought it would be nice to give kids an opportunity onstage to be heard as well as seen.”
For some, like Cameron Whealan, it helped them to rekindle their joy of theatre that had been missing for quite a while. When asked what acting out meant to him, Whealan said, “I don’t know if I can articulate that that well, Acting Out was sort of where I fell in love with theatre again after high school where I didn’t do theatre for a while. I’ve done a lot of shows here, it’s community, and to be candid it’s a really really big part of my life.”
Many other people in the community feel this same sentiment, as it has become a second home to many, not just kids, but adults as well, one such being Molly Tannatt. Tannatt started off at Acting Out taking her daughter Abbey to the kid classes at Acting Out in 2005 and realized while doing so that theatre seems pretty fun and enjoying so she decided to start doing shows there in 2008 and has been involved ever since. When asked what Acting Out means to her, Tannatt said “The connection for me both with my daughters as young people and the other young people. They become like your other children, it’s a give and take, they keep us young, they look to us for guidance, and it’s just the best you can’t replace that.”
Acting Out is and will always be a place where people can just let go and be fully, unapologetically themselves. Nothing to hold you back, just all the encouragement and friends you could ask for. Most feel as though it’s not just friends you make here, but a whole big family that will always be there for you. Their Slogan, Acting Out is what it’s all about vey much rings true and can be agreed upon by anyone who’s stepped foot there.
