Meet Donna Mercier, Executive Director of C.A.S.T.

Donna Mercier works to "enrich the lives of children through the magic of performing arts" every week.

Donna has taken an idea that she had  over 24years ago, to make a summer theater experiece for children, into a reality for an entire generation of children. Now parents of her original  C.A.S.T. kids are bringing their children to experience the same magic.

Timothy Becker: Donna you are known for your work with C.A.S.T. What exactly is C.A.S.T.?

Donna Mercier: C.A.S.T stands for Children's Associated Summer Theater. C.A.S.T. Is a non-profit 501 C (3) children's theater. We originally were just a summer program. We are now in our 24^th season. We have been a year round program for 14 years. Our year round program consists of a fall session and a winter/spring session. We have classes geared toward performance of musical theater productions.

Timothy Becker:  What age groups of children do you work with at C.A.S.T., and are your students mostly Manchester residents?

Donna Mercier:  Our students range from 5 to 18 years old. We have children from Manchester and all the surrounding communities as well as students from New Haven, Springfield, MA, and beyond. Some students are here in the summer from other states or countries. We have had students with physical disabilities, who have participated alongside the other students in almost every production. Our studio is handicapped accessible and we use everyone's talent in each production. Our kids work as a team.

Timothy Becker: How and when did you get started?

Donna Mercier:   C.A.S.T. Was established by myself and the late Jannette Fraser-Wodal in the fall of 1987. It began with a dream and desire to provide children a theater experience during their summer vacation. We have grown and evolved from a $3,000 production to a $150,000 business, with over 200 children performing year round housed in our our building on Summit Street.

Timothy Becker: How has the Summit St. building worked our for you?

Donna Mercier:  The space has allowed us to consolidate our costumes, props, set workshop, office, and studio in one central location. A 60-seat black box theater serves as a rehearsal and performance space.

Timothy Becker: Other than fees how do your raise funds for you organization?

Donna Mercier:  Since we are a non-profit, we rely on fund-raising, grants, community support, as well as ticket sales and registration fees to meet our financial commitments. We offer scholarship assistance to students that cannot afford the fees, and no child is ever turned away based on ability to pay.  We have a variety show, a bowl-a-thon, and  an annual capital campaign for building support. We apply for grants from foundations. We are a private organization and do not receive government funding.

Timothy Becker: At what age did you discover your love for theater?

Donna Mercier: I have been singing and dancing since age three. I studied dance with Mary Dunphy until age 12. and then with Beverly and the late Lee Burton into my 40's. My vocal training began with the late Charlotte Gray, and has continued with Donna Schaffer and Carolyn Fisher of Summit Studios. I received a scholarship from the Hartford Conservatory as a teenager and participated in my high school performances and with Little Theater of Manchester. Fred Blish mentored me and many others over the years.

Timothy Becker:  What advice do you have for parents that would like to expose their children to the performing arts?

Donna Mercier:  The best advise that I can give parents looking to expose their children to the arts is to participate in whatever interests them.  There are so many mediums to choose from.  Just express your creativity and learn as much as you can.  Many of our students take dance or vocals classes, play an instrument, win art contests and act in their school plays. They also play sports, study karate, in short they lead busy enriched lives.  Kids that have a lot of interests, are interesting people. They are confident in and out of school., and that is what is so rewarding to see.  My C.A.S.T. kids are regular kids who happen to enjoy theater, but most of them have lots of other interests.

Timtohy Becker: What are you currently working on?

Donna Mercier: We are starting our performance weekends during the month of May which will conclude our season. We are preparing our dance numbers, getting our summer information and schedules out to our families and working on fund-raising. We are also planning for out 25^th anniversary celebration for next year.

Timothy Becker: Do you have any plans for the years to come for C.AS.T. ?

Donna Mercier:  Our plans are no different really from where we started 24 years ago: to put on a good quality production with kids, to hear the applause and bask in the well-deserved praise from our audience, and to provide a theater experience for any child who wants to participate, one child at a time, one show at a time, one line at time. We have made summertime magic for 24 years, made memories, and built “characters” with character. What could be better than that?