Metropolitan Educational Theatre's 'Oliver' Comes to Poway

The Metropolitan Educational Theatre will showcase a classic tale it hasn’t produced in more than a decade at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts this weekend.

MET2’s ‘Oliver,’ will come to Poway, after being presented in San Fernando Valley, Torrance/South Bay and east San Gabriel Valley.

“It was high time to bring it back,” said Artistic Director Alison Bretches. “It’s a classic from the musical theater repertoire.”

The North County San Diego version includes 180 participants, mostly young actors from kindergarten through college.

“It’s such a great show in terms of the amount of parts that are available for young people,” Bretches said. “We take everybody. Anybody who wants to participate is allowed to do so. We don’t turn any kid away.”

Participants have been preparing for the production since March. Actors have rehearsed roughly 45 minutes to an hour every week, Bretches said.

“It’s quite amazing what these kids accomplish in such a short amount of time,” Bretches said.

Bretches added that the young actors have enjoyed learning the story about a young orphan who escapes life in a workhouse in Victorian London.

“It has a great message of people trying to find their way through acceptance and being accepted in the world, which I think, is a very relevant message for kids and young people in this time,” Bretches said.

MET2 is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to providing a theater program for young people. Thus, Bretches said she was happy to see some actors obtain copies of the book and watch onscreen adaptations.

“That’s something they might not have done, but because it was in a musical version, they were introduced to it,” she said.

The productions are educational for the participants, but also for theatergoers, Bretches said.

MET2 will offer performances to local schools and youth organizations on Thursday and Friday morning. The field trip performances are often the first time some young attendees are exposed to live theatrical performances, Bretches said.

“Unfortunately, the arts budgets are being cut more and more, and kids aren’t being exposed to the arts in a way in which they used to,” she said.

Teachers also receive educational curriculum packets to foster discussion.

“It’s not just about going to the theater, it’s tying in a whole other layer of educational information,” Bretches said.

Bretches hopes exposure to arts creates an appreciation for arts for those in attendance. 

She was once a 10-year-old in the program, she said. She became the head of the organization after Founder Alex H. Urban died in 2007.

“It’s kind of fun to tell the kids, ‘I started right there, where you are,’” she said. “They don’t realize that, and their eyes get as big as saucers and they go, ‘You did!’ That’s really fun.”

Public performances will take place on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts, which is located at 15498 Espola Rd.

Tickets cost $25-$28 for adults and $19-$22 for children on Saturday, and $20-$23 for adults and $16-$19 for children on Sunday. 

“Supporting young people in the arts, I think, is an important thing in this day and age,” Bretches said. “They’ve done an absolutely wonderful job. I’m always so very, very proud of the work that they do.

“It’s really wonderful when they have people there to see them, applaud for them and encourage them for all the hard work that they’ve done.”

In other arts news:

• The Poway Folk Circle will meet for Slow Jam Sunday. Musicians will form small groups, learn a song, make an arrangement and perform their pieces for others. The jam session will begin on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Old Poway Park.
• The  will offer summer arts camp this summer. Campers will receive a 10 percent discount if they register before May 31. “Camp” days begin at 9 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Parents can also pick up their young artists at noon or 2 p.m. For more information, call Bonnie Stromer, the center’s founder and director, at 858-679-2787. The Xpressive Arts Center is located at 12257-B Old Pomerado Rd.