Contributed by Katharine (Kat) St. Clair Izard

WARNING! Strange effects may occur if you decide to raise your child in an “older” (retirement-aged) community. Side effects may include 1) child preferring dinner parties over house parties, 2) child “grooving to the oldies” instead of the top hits, 3) child learning how to say “yes ma’am”, “no ma’am”, “yes sir”, and “no sir” without being told, reminded, or prompted because everyone is their elder and should be respected.

Growing up, Flat Rock wasn’t the most “kid-friendly” place. There was no late-night hang-out spot (because everything closed by 8 pm), there wasn’t a park at that time, and most of the church community was above the age of 65.

However, there was one location that brought children of all ages together. A place that inspired and encouraged creativity. A place that drew people in, not only from Flat Rock, but Asheville, Hendersonville, Greenville, etc. This place is the great Flat Rock Playhouse, the State Theatre of North Carolina. As a budding performer, someone who couldn’t get enough of theatre, I loved spending most of my days within the rehearsal halls of the Playhouse. There, my true self could be released and shine. Unlike school, the Flat Rock Playhouse gave me a community of like-minded creatives and showed me how I could use all my gifts.

I started at the Playhouse in the summer of 2000. Back then the program for children was called The Theatre for Young People, affectionately known as TYP. It was run by Betsy Bisson, a creative genius and wizard with aspiring young actors. My mother had the foresight to sign me up for a summer acting class. I’m sure she knew more than I did that this theatre would become my home for the next seven years.

After a year, I was invited to join The Company of TYP. The Company was an invitation-only acting program. Betsy cultivated young aspiring thespians and taught them every aspect of theatre. When I say every, I mean EVERY aspect. We met once a week on Saturday mornings for three hours. Not only were we required to read a play a month (and write about it), but we were taught the basics of singing, dancing, and theatre techniques all to make us better performers. We even were given opportunities to participate in state programs for writing and directing.

On top of that, Betsy believed every performer should know the ins and outs of a full production. So we were given private lessons by the great Dennis Maulden on set design, dance lessons by Lisa Bryant (the current Artistic Director), photography with Scott Treadway, and we were expected to help build and strike (theatre word for takedown) every mainstage production even if we were not in the show. Betsy and Flat Rock Playhouse gave me and my fellow thespians an opportunity most students wouldn’t have gained until college. They created programs that helped young theatre people truly understand and immerse themselves in every opportunity of the theatre.

In high school, I auditioned for The Conservatory program. At this point, The Theatre for Young People had become the YouTheatre at Flat Rock Playhouse. The name had changed, but the dedication to theatre education was just as vigorous. In order to get into Betsy’s Conservatory, you not only had to audition but you also had to take an exam on the many layers of theatre (production, design, acting techniques) that lasted at a minimum of three hours. I cared more about acing this exam than I did the SATs, and years later when I was taking a comprehensive exam in Theatre Arts for my college major I was grateful for the copious notes I had taken under Betsy’s tutelage!

The Conservatory program met twice a week and whatever we did in Company, we doubled! We also got the added bonuses of directing opportunities as well as the necessity to complete summer projects in order to stay in the program. While all of this might sound a bit intense, to those of us who were lucky enough to participate in it, it was a dream come true. We all were in love with the theatre and Flat Rock Playhouse pushed us to really work at our dream. We got to see our aspirations from all angles and learned how to be great stewards of the theatre.

The reading of plays, the classes on costume design, lighting, make-up, and figuring out the difference between the Laban technique and the Meisner technique were all a theatre kid’s joy, but ask any theatre nerd and they’ll always tell you the best part of the theatre is the PERFORMANCE! In the YouTheatre we knew we’d have several small shows throughout the year but two shows were always guaranteed: The YouTheatre Production and the Spring Festival. Once a year The YouTheatre got to put on a big mainstage production. More often than not it started off Flat Rock Playhouse’s season

The wonderful part about these productions is the fact that they were the real deal. They were never a make-shift show pieced together, but a full-on professional production. With Betsy at the helm, we put on some incredible shows: Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland, and Pinocchio to name a few. These productions were backed by the full staff of Flat Rock Playhouse so we had professional costumes, lighting, sets, and even for one production (Alice in Wonderland) we had a former TYP student who is now a professional choreographer on Broadway, Chase Brock, choreograph our show.

These productions were big and incredible. It gave us a chance to be a part of a mainstage production and feel what it was like to live and breathe theatre. The Spring Festival was always a blast! It happened in the Spring (of course) and was a weekend of performances from ALL the YouTheatre classes. From the young ballet dance classes to the high school musical classes, to those of us in the Company and Conservatory, it was a great weekend filled with smiles and laughter, and for me and my friends, it was always our favorite weekend of the year.

Flat Rock Playhouse YouTheatre has changed in many ways since I was a student. For one it is now called Studio 52, they have their own building (something my contemporaries and I are jealous of), and the range of classes are even broader (something I didn’t imagine possible). While the legendary Betsy Bisson has moved on to The South Carolina Children’s Theatre in Greenville, SC there are still some of my favorites and fellow students now at the helm like Lisa Byrant, Matthew Glover as Artistic Associate, and Olivia Palmer as Development Associate!

Flat Rock Playhouse may have changed over the years but the integrity and dedication to fostering thespians certainly has not. The Flat Rock Playhouse is a pillar of our small community and its saving grace in many ways. While growing up in a retirement-aged community wasn’t always ideal for a child - I often clash with my peers on what is “good” music - I wouldn’t have wished for another childhood home. Growing up at the Playhouse was a gift, one that could not have happened without growing up in Flat Rock.

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Katharine (Kat) St. Clair Izard was born in Charleston and is the daughter of Missy Izard Schenck of Flat Rock, and Bru Izard of Charleston. She is a graduate in Theater and English from Sewanee: The University of the South and will begin graduate school this summer at Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English in Vermont. After spending several years in Chicago with Second City and Improv Olmpics (IO) writing and performing, Kat is excited to begin this next chapter.