Olympia Family Theatre

Olympia Family Theatre

In 2006, two friends got together filled with inspiration to develop an areas where all age groups in the community can come together and enjoy themselves. That was when Jen Ryle and Samantha Chandler decided to create the Olympia Family Theatre bringing their commitment, love for theatre and passion to life. The Olympia Family Theatre started out small, gathering their friends for assistance and together they built this theatre from the ground up.

The Olympia Family Theatre is a registered organization by the state and works towards the aim of creating the best quality of theatre experiences that can be provided to the audience. To this day, the Olympic Family Theatre has produced more than 45 plays on their main stage, participated in three world premieres and have gone out of their way to contribute to the educational experiences for all age groups. The Olympic Family Theatre has also managed to grow so massively that enables them to provide tuition and scholarships towards their educational programs and participate in giveaways of almost 250 tickets annually. These free tickets are usually provided to the people in the community who dedicate their time to serve the youth and families in the city.

The main objective of the Olympia Family Theatre is to create a loving environment where ideas can run wild, instilling confidence into young minds. The programs offered at the theatre aims at teaching children how to think creatively and to be responsible, building them up towards their futures. The Olympia Family Theatre also provides educational programs to motivate the participation of teamwork, recognizing integrity and embedding self-esteem within the youth.

Although the theatre has only recently launched in 2006, they have strived for the stars and achieving is what they have conquered. The Olympia Family Theatre has so much to offer to their community including main stage stories, creative camps and workshops, ‘Let’s Play, Daytime Shows’ and ‘On the Move’. The mainstage stories consist of having five annual plays that will include two musicals and a play with youth artists, enabling family fun time and for the young to showcase their talents. The creative camps and workshops are programs that were created to develop youth that aspire to be actors, through the help of weekend classes. The ‘Let’s Play, Daytime Shows’ are the shows that are produced on a month to month basis that usually revolve around stories based on fairytales or folk tales. Finally ‘On the Move’ is the Olympia Family Theatre touring performance, where the shows will be brought to life within schools or community groups.

If inspiration did not stop there, Olympia Family Theatre has taken on a collaboration with Apple Tree Productions to promote games, celebrations and performances. The Apple Tree Productions was launched by Heidi Fredericks and Collen Powers. They had originally worked within children’s theatre for many years and when Capital Playhouse closed down, these young women found a need to fill the gap for children’s theatre, therefore launching their production company. The idea was launched after the Kids at Play program had shut down and these two women started to receive multiple phone calls from parents wondering if they would continue to do solo plays. With the creation of Apple Tree Productions, it gives children a platform and safe haven to contribute towards their passions and grow into artists of the theatre. It comes as no surprise that Olympia Family Theatre would participate and collaborate with Apple Tree Productions, given the similar objectives of the theatres.

It is always encouraged to dream big and dreaming big is what the founders of Olympia Family Theatre have accomplished. Who would have thought two inspiring young ladies would bring to life art, theatre and inspiration of youth growth into a community in Washington State. The development of such projects creates different platforms and forms of entertainment within the community and gives younger generations the sense to get motivated and to discover new paths that they can take in their lives. It is safe to say, that following your dreams may actually pay off in the end with positivity and the trust in your passion.