Today we’d like to introduce you to Miles McMahon.
Hi Miles, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Theatre of the Imagination is happy to be celebrating our 25th anniversary! We started as an after school drama program at an elementary school in Brookside. Hoping to get 5-10 kids, we were surprised when 28 showed up! We split into equal sized groups on different days, so everyone could get a lot of attention.
When looking for plays, Director Miles McMahon could not find any that truly engaged the kids. So he wrote a show with roles specifically designed to each student. There was the hero, the crazy sidekick, evil bad guys, pop star divas, and more.
Soon other schools showed interest and the programs grew. Then came our first summer camp at the old Alanz Theater in Brookside. That was followed by Saturday classes, birthday parties, drama workshops and more. What began as a side project evolved into a full-time kid’s drama company.
But the focus was never on expansion, but rather always on attention to the kids. In our first group of young performers there were Jonathan and Taylor. Jonathan was very shy and reserved while Taylor was a 30 year old comedian in a 7 year old brain! Our show was Christmas themed, so we wrote Jonathan the role of Santa, but he got to sleepwalk the entire time. He liked to be on stage, but did not want to talk his first time out. Taylor was Mrs Claus, and had many funny bits and speeches, and was memorized after the first day!
The Christmas show was a hit, giving both students the outlet they each needed. As time went on Jonathan got more and more confident, while Taylor was challenged by the parts we wrote for her. Now years later Jonathan works in marketing for the Kansas City Royals and Taylor writes for “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” on HBO, where she just won her fourth Emmy award!
In the past twenty five years we have seen over 15,000 students come through our doors. From shy to outgoing, every student gets the care and attention they need to grow and flourish on stage.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
One of the biggest struggles we have had is constantly writing new plays for our students. What many people don’t realize with the creative process is that for every minute of a play you see on stage, the playwright puts in many, many hours of work. And since we write plays around each group of kids that we have, every show is different.
We have some plays with all 6 year olds, with parts that are easy to learn and memorize. Then we might have the same play with a different class that is all 12 year olds. In that case the entire show is rewritten to their level of performance and memorization.
We have written parts for kids who want big speeches, and others who to be part of a group but don’t like the spotlight. We had one young man who said he did not want to do any of the following things: act, sing, dance, be funny, be weird, wear a costume nor have anyone look at him. When asked why he wants to do theater he replied “oh I love being on stage!”. Luckily we wrote a part for him that he loved, and he performed like a pro. (Note: he did get laughs and he ended up liking that!).
Though writing show after show is a struggle, watching the kids gain confidence on stage is well worth it. We have written over 200 plays, many with wacky titles such as “Cake Pop Dragon Donut Hunters” and “Space Warriors: The Force of Bacon”.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Director Miles McMahon studied theater for many years, first at Western Michigan University then receiving a Masters Degree at UMKC. He worked as a professional actor at many local theaters including the KC Rep, Unicorn, Coterie and Shakespeare Festival.
On TV Miles can be seen on many local commercials for Price Chopper, Garmin, Hallmark and more. He is even in a commercial playing poker with a dancing toilet! (The toilet won the poker game, he had a Flush)
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lesson we have learned is to never stop improving. There is no plateau as an artist or a teacher. We must always be striving to learn, to improve, to grow. Kids need attention, care, and support. To foster their creativity we need to always be striving to reach the next level.
Pricing:
- $155 for a 5 week after school class
- $395 for a week long spring break or summer camp
- $375 for a DJ dance birthday party
- $325 for a movie-making birthday party
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dramakc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theatreoftheimaginationkc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheatreoftheImagination/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheatreoftheImagination
