Delaware Children’s Theatre is marking its 50th anniversary.
Located in a Victorian house in Wilmington, the company was founded by Marie Swajeski, and offers three productions a year, each running three weekends.
Over the years, the economics of children’s theater have adapted to tastes, including the more recent access to the Disney Company’s material.
Delaware Children's Theatre Office Manager Heather Healy says the Disney content is a boon, but can be challenging.
“Having the Disney scripts has made the marketing easier but it has also hurt us in other ways, because buying the rights to these shows - especially Frozen or Mary Poppins, usually cost three times what we might normally spend on a production, and we try to keep our ticket prices low, so Disney ones are the ones we do sparingly."
Healy says while children are easily engaged as an audience, today’s demand for spectacle even plays out in childrens’ theater productions.
DCT is using projection technology to enhance its productions, and hopes to expand its usage.
“You put across the back of the stage area so you don’t only have the set, and that really allows you to create a really beautiful picture for the kids to enjoy. You can really see the yellow brick road or the London rooftops in Peter Pan. It’s just more exciting for the kids to have these projections."
DCT has also experimented with a podcast in an attempt to assure that audiences can find the theatre’s stories and actors online.
Delaware Children’s Theatre is run today by Swajeski’s daughter Donna Marie.
Its production of the Wizard of Oz opens November 18, followed by Disney’s The Little Mermaid in February 2024.
Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.