By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer
Young performers gain confidence and get the chance to sing and dance.

AUBURN – With the slumped posture of a seen-it-all-before diva, 10-year-old Sydney Nadeau fanned herself with her script, then tossed it onto the stage floor.

Musical director Colin Britt sat behind an upright piano and smiled, directing Sydney and 10 other children to gather in a semicircle.

“We’re going to work on vocals only,” he said.

“What’s a vocal?” Sydney asked.

“Your voices,” Britt said.

“I knew that,” said the girl, standing a little straighter. At her cue, Britt nodded and she sang her solo.

Only two weeks earlier, Sydney was too scared to sing alone.

“I told them I couldn’t do it,” said the girl, a tiny blonde. However, her mom told her she could. So did the people here, at the Community Little Theatre.

Since the beginning of July, Sydney has been part of the theater company’s new summer youth workshop.

It’s a musical theater camp for local kids.

With a bare-bones budget and a staff of volunteers, the program was created to introduce children to the stage.

It’s worked, said Linda Britt, a regular director for the amateur theater company.

“You should have seen them before,” Britt said, pointing to Sydney and several others. They have overcome fears. They’ve learned to savor the attention of the stage.

Britt came up with the idea after watching hundreds of kids audition for past productions. Roles too often went to the ones with a bit of experience, who knew how to project their voices, how to select the right song or the right excerpt of a play to perform.

For the shy kids, presenting themselves for casting can be traumatic. The workshop could help them get past that.

For others, it would be another chance to sing and dance, figured Linda Britt. And that’s fine, too.

“I have to do this,” said Michael Webber, a 12-year-old from Auburn.

Tall and eager, the boy said he hopes to emulate Colin Britt, a 20-year-old musical director who is Linda Britt’s son.

Michael plays the piano and flute and participates in every musical production he can. With little prompting, he lists his credits. Among them are parts in the Auburn company’s productions of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “Singin’ in the Rain.”

He doesn’t pretend to know it all, though.

On the stage, he sings softly. When he misses his cue, he wrinkles his face and balls his fists. He’s trying. And he says he’s learned a lot.

Since the first session at the start of July, the kids have been taught the basics of auditioning, rehearsing, stage terms, singing, dancing and acting. There are 28 children in all, ages 5 to 14.

After holding their own auditions, the children were cast among two plays, “The Skeleton in the School” and “Who’s Running the School?” Both were written by Linda and Colin Britt.

Performances are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

The preparation has kept the kids busy three nights a week, gathering for two-hour sessions in the old school building on Academy Street.

It’s hard work, but they don’t see it that way, said Anna Cyr, whose daughter Maisy is in the workshop.

On the stage, kids swayed in time to Colin’s piano.

“Extra! Extra! Read all about it,” they sang together, one of four tunes from the “Skeleton in the School.”

Sydney swayed with them. She seemed to sing without a worry.

The 10-year-old from Greene has trouble explaining what changed, how she overcame her fear.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I like it up there.”