Harrisburg’s Foose School sang and danced the month of September away, entertaining their audience with scenes and music from 42nd Street, Girl Crazy and Pippin. More than 100 fifth and sixth grade students took part in Rosie’s Theater Kids – a NYC based art program for underprivileged kids, led by Rosie O’Donnell. Fifteen thousand dollars of the funds were donated by Shipley Energy. This enabled the group to come to Harrisburg.
It was indeed “thrilling” for O’Donnell “to be able to offer these kids at Foose Elementary this introduction to musical theater,” she said in an email. She loves the whole acting thing, in the same email claiming that Broadway and the arts, “changed [her] life and gave [her] hope.”
The kids at the school got so much from this program. Children who had never been privileged enough to take lessons but just enjoy dancing and singing at home, were, for the first time, able to actually get real lessons, from a professional instructor. One kid at the school, 10-year-old Saul Ramos, in a recent article in Penn Live was reported to have said, “it’s cool because everybody can see me.” Along with another student, Ramos got a special honor and was given $2,000 scholarship which will enable him to study at Rosie’s Theater Kids’ summer camp in New York for a week next August. He will meet O’Donnell, Broadway celebrities and a talent agent as well as getting professional headshots.
From Harrisburg’s Foose School to Broadway? Stranger things have happened. This really could be just a start for these underprivileged kids. Way to go Harrisburg.
