In 1998, Capital Playhouse began a new program called the Page to Stage Theater-Literacy Program.

The Goal:

. . . to bring the written word to life on stage for students and families involved in literacy and reading programs throughout South Puget Sound.

The Hope:

. . . to spark their imagination and to inspire in them a desire to learn to read by uniting literacy and live theatre.

Capital Playhouse’s Page to Stage Theatre-Literacy Program is celebrating its 11th year in 2008 featuring a week long, community wide celebration of theatre and literacy activities for students 5 to 18.  Featuring an enchanting production of Peter Pan staged at South Puget Sound Community College’s new Center for the Arts, the festival culminates with a swashbuckling, neverland-inspired festival in Sylvester Park, Olympia’s historical  park in the heart of the downtown business community.

To date more than 5,000 students have participated in Page to Stage from throughout the southwest Puget Sound area.  The involvement of so many students is a result of the playhouse’s yearly invitation to a variety of community-based organizations to partner with us in behalf of students who have little or no access to the performing arts in combination with literacy-based activities.

Over the years students have attended productions specifically dedicated to Page to Stage audiences including Peter Pan, The Wizard of OZ, The Secret Garden, Once on This Island, Big River-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Jane Eyre, Oliver! and West Side Story based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  The 2007 production was a reprise of The Wizard of OZ complete with flying actors and animals!  For 2008 get ready for more flying as Peter flies into your hearts and that cantankerous Captain Hook once again takes the stage.

The Page to Stage Peter Pan Festival will take place between July 5th and July 13th.  Together with a variety of community partners, among them The Olympia Timberland Library, Friends of the Timberland Library, The South Sound Reading Foundation, DeColores Books, Cielo, Author Aaron Shepherd, Poet Lucia Perillo, The Olympia Film Society and the Olympia Downtown Starbucks, we expect to celebrate both musical theatre and literacy in a truly inspirational and fun way. 

The festival includes youth poetry, writing and sea chantey contests.  Check back here May 1st for the rules and entry forms!

Look below for the Page to Stage Peter Pan Festival Calendar of Events.