What is La-De-Da?

We like Converse.

La-De-Da Performing Arts is a theatrical training school for the young and young at heart. We offer classes and camps year round for Pre-schoolers to adults teaching everything from improv to musical theatre. Our teachers love what they do – act, sing, write, create, laugh, play, compose, build and listen, and we believe the life lessons gained through the performing arts our ones we take with us on journey to being empowered, passionate, collaborative, and empathetic students of life.

Why should you and your young actor share a significant part of your time with la-de-da?

Good question.

Your teachers and mentors love what they do – act, sing, write, create, laugh, play, compose, build and listen. We've written a whole lot of songs and a bunch of shows and we have shared our experience and creativity with a whole bunch of kids. Long enough now that we have children of previous acting students in class.

We've also discovered the joy and fun of having classes for adults. Acting and Improvisation for those of you still kids at heart. All levels welcome.

What We Do

Classes & Camps

La-De-Da has weekly classes for all ages all year round in many different disciplines. We also have special camps and intensives offered in the summer and throughout the year.

Performance

La-De-Da has an annual production of A Musical Christmas Carol which is an original La-De-Da adaptation of the beloved Dickens novel. We perform in the Lincoln Center every December.

We also perform in the Fort Collins Fringe Festival every year in July and devise new work we find relevant to our time.

Private Lesson

All of the teachers at La-De-Da are also practitioners in their fields. We will offer private coaching for personal or professional development.

Workshops

La-De-Da will also offer workshops in many topics from Improv to Team Building, we will even come to you.

Our History

La-De-Da started years ago in a little garage on Harvard. We painted the overhead door deep blue and rolled in a piano. There was barely enough room for a few adventurous kids who most if not all stayed with us until we moved to a big space over by Whole Foods - which was for years the abandoned old Montgomery Ward.

A few more spaces and now we are in a spacious, really nice studio with super high ceilings. Come see us.

After co-founding and leading La-De-Da for nineteen years, Nick Turner recently left to become the new Executive Director of The Grand in Ellsworth, ME. Yes, it's a long ways away but a great vacation spot for family and friends. He takes everything wonderful about La-De-Da to share Downeast.

Co-founder and music director Troy Schuh continues piano lessons at La-De-Da as he finishes a second degree in Statistics.

Heather Ostberg Johnson & Dulcie Willis spent many years working with Nick & Troy on various projects around Fort Collins and became the new proud owners of La-De-Da Performing Arts in March of 2017.

La-De-Da Studio

4019 S. Mason, Unit 2

Fort Collins, CO 80525

970.829.8696

Meet The la-de-da Team

OUR DIRECTORS

Dulcie Willis

DULCIE WILLIS comes to La-De-Da with over 25 years in educational theatre and production experience. She holds a Master of Arts in Arts Administration from Goucher College along with BA degrees in Theatre Arts Education from the University of Northern Colorado and Musical Theatre from Mesa State College. Dulcie has taught drama, speech, film, dance, and English in Taiwan, South Korea, Arizona, and Colorado. Dulcie has directed, choreographed, and produced over 40 productions for high school and community theatre, with award-winning work featured at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Dulcie lead the theatre program at Poudre High School from 2002-2009, She is former Executive Director at Bas Bleu Theatre Company, Education Outreach Coordinator for the Fort Collins Lincoln Center and Adjunct Faculty/Graduate Coordinator for the CSU LEAP Institute for the Arts. Dulcie has been Volunteer Coordinator for the City of Greeley, Project Manager for Beaver Creek Children’s Theatre and Operations Manager for the Grand Junction Family Theatre Company/ DooZoo Children’s Museum. She currently serves as President of The Friends of the Gardens on Spring Creek and served on the Curriculum Committee for the Arts Incubator of the Rockies, and on the Dance Standards Curriculum Subcommittee for the State of Colorado. She most recently directed Fort Collins Children’s Theatre productions of Beauty and the Beast, Shrek, and Seussical the Musical. Together with Heather Johnson, she has produced the Fort Collins Fringe Festival for five years.

Dulcie looks forward to a bright future with La-De-Da!

www.dulciewillis.com

THE INSTRUCTORS

Jessica MacMaster

Improv Instructor

Jessica MacMaster has been improvising her whole life. But so have you. She started seriously studying improv 10 years ago when she began performing with the Swinging Johnson Brothers in Denver. Now, a co-founder of the Comedy Brewers in Fort Collins, JMac performs for private events and at the Bas Bleu Theater where she also taught improv workshops. She can be seen performing in ‘mainstage’ shows at Openstage Theatre Company, Bas Bleu Theatre Company, and The Dinner Detective Murder Mystery Dinner Show. It is also JMac’s first year co-producing the Fort Collins Fringe Festival. Jessica’s objective is to cultivate others’ innate creativity through designing a fun, supportive environment to let it all out.

Musical Therapist/Music Instructor

Daniel Goldschmidt is a board-certified music therapist, business owner, and public speaker. He is currently studying for his master's in music therapy with a graduate certificate in gender, power, and difference at Colorado State University. His work at CSU has focused on neural correlates of autism spectrum disorder and utilizing music for therapeutic intervention. In 2015, Daniel started his entrepreneurial journey with Goldschmidt Music Services, LLC, which offers high-quality music therapy for the central Virginia utilizing the talents of five board-certified music therapists . His practice currently focuses on children, adolescents, and adults with developmental disabilities, and older adults with dementia-related disorders. Daniel is an avid speaker on Music Therapy and music cognition. Notably, his speaking engagements include a TEDxRVA talk, a keynote speech at the Virginia Occupational Therapy Conference, an upcoming TEDx talk with TEDxMILEHIGH in Denver, an upcoming keynote for the Virginia Association of Licensed Child Placing Agencies (VALCPA), and numerous presentations at national and regional professional conferences.

Heather Ostberg Johnson

HEATHER OSTBERG JOHNSON brings 14 years of diverse performance, production, and teaching experience to La-De-Da. Her recent focus is on developing new work and teaching actors to devise plays from scratch that are meaningful to them and their community. She shares a passion and background with La-De-Da's commitment to original, skill-based, age appropriate work. Heather holds a Performance Arts degree from Westmont College and studied clowning and physical theatre in San Francisco with Moshe Cohen, the founder of Clowns Without Borders, as well as Leonard Pitt and James Donlan of the Flying Actors Studio. She has taught movement, improvisation, and theatre skills through workshops and after-school programs at Zach Elementary School, Boltz Middle School, and Poudre High School as well as Polaris Expeditionary Learning School, Fort Collins Montessori School, and Poudre Academy of Performing Arts. Heather has a strong commitment to lifelong learning and seeks out training in movement and physical theatre across the country to share with her students. She also continues to tour original pieces of theatre each summer, most recently taking her co-written two-woman show Mad and a Goat to New York, Austin, Santa Barbara, and Denver, with Portland and Berkley on the calendar for Summer 2017. Heather can be found onstage and behind the scenes locally with Bas Bleu, Open Stage Theatre, and the Fort Collins Fringe Festival. She is also a founding member of the Comedy Brewers with whom she performs short-form comedy improv every month. Heather and Dulcie have thoroughly enjoyed partnering together the past five years establishing and producing the Fort Collins Fringe Festival

Heather is excited to be carrying on the rich tradition of La-De-Da's high caliber theatre education programs.

Acting Instructor

Cary Klataske

Cary Klataske

Over a decade of theatre experience in performance, direction, and design, started rocking when Cary received a Bachelors in Theatre from Kansas State University. With post-graduate work in Drama Therapy and Special Education, Cary pursued how art intersects mental health, education, and social opportunity. Continuing to always perform, some favorite performance pieces have included The North Plan, Dancing at Lughnasa, Les Miserables, Godspell, Edward Albee's Seascape, and Almost, Maine. Here in Fort Collins, he is also a co-founder of the improvisational performance group The Comedy Brewers. Cary sees art as a force of collaboration and learning, has spent several years as a school teacher, and is excited to explore theatre with all in the community.

Guest Instructors

Mike Largent, Advanced Workshops

Deanna Gillan, Toddler Creative Drama

Larry Holgerson, Slam Poetry

AIMEE Woods, Music & VOICE Instruction

Jessi Triplett, Music Instruction

Private Lessons

ACTING/AUDITIONING/PERFORMANCE PREP

Audition Coaching

If you are preparing for an audition, college audition or a performance, both Dulcie and Heather are available for private coaching.

PIANO

Troy Schuh is a founder of la-de-da - a musician and composer who has played more professional musicals than he’d like to remember and played the “la-de-da” theme song more than he can ever forget. He has music directed and played a multitude of shows at area theaters including The Garner Galleria at the Denver Center for the Arts. Still teaching Private Piano, Troy is currently getting a degree in Statistics from CSU and destroying the curve.

VOICE

Improve your sing skills, become a confident singer, or take what you've got to the next level and train.

Happening pretty close to right now.

Twitter

Attend the Fort Collins Fringe Festival 2018? They are seeking your audience feedback! https://t.co/IePSIPWJEp
about 5 hours ago

Instagram

Don't be lonely like this mountain 🐐! Fall is coming! Keep the fall fun with La-De-Da theatre classes!
Ladedacolorado.org

WHat People Are Saying

A simple thank you does not seem like enough, but thank you. You have encouraged T and believed in her ability in a way that no other adult has ever done (besides her parents). I could go on and on, but I know that you have been around T enough to know that like all humans, she is an imperfect person, and she is just looking for her place to feel accepted and to be who she is. (which I think is an energetic, fascinating person) You have given her that place and I again want to thank you.

We've had some things said about us over the years.

From Brendon Votipka, Playwright and Assistant Director and Coordinator of Plangere Writing Center at Rutgers University. la-de-da alumni.

"It's weird
Being here
Did you picture this that first day?
Did you see yourself this way?
Do you remember what you heard them say?
'Keep your hands to yourself, say please, say thanks
Here's a copy of the handbook, you just fill in the blanks as you go
and you'l know
and you'll learn
you don't want to miss this
keep a sharp number two, answers change, and often do, it's not that strange,
and so do you.
and so do you'"
lyricist, Nick Turner, from the 2005 original musical "Kiss Chase"

Nick! I had this song stuck in my head today. I'm now a full-time writing professor, something I hadn't dreamed I would be, and I was walking to class- and this song from years ago wouldn't leave my mind. I was thinking of the syllabus and my typical beginning of the semester routine, and the bigness and smallness of it all resonated with me in your song. Thank you for everything you've taught me. Thanks for everything you did that was out of the box. Nick, I am so privileged to have had you as a mentor and inspiration. And Troy Schuh, I wouldn't be the man I am today without you and the La-da-da family you created.

Thanks for all the art you two have created, and shared.

la-de-da is one of a kind.

"I don’t think I’ll ever totally be able to put into words how grateful I am and will always be for my time spent at la-de-da … I've known for a while now that it truly changed my life, but now I see how my experience can help me change the lives of others, even if it is just a small memory of the time they had working on their camp play. Thank you for everything that you chose to share with me. I am sure I remember far more than you do, which is now a good reminder for me in my first steps as a teacher. Our camp director reminds us every week that, even though the kids might not be expressing it in words, the time we spend with the campers is making an impact, an impression, making memories that they will have for a long time to come. I found it hard to believe until I thought back to all the times we had in la-de-da…that I remember perfectly. I still remember the very first la-de-da… class I took. I read “The Secret” with Rachelle, Ashleigh and Emily Baker. And we did the macaroni/rigatoni warm-up – which I just did with a group of campers in one of my classes. I remember Troy showing us the “worst song in the world” video, which we then played on repeat for the better part of an hour. I remember Nick teaching us about Stanislavsky for the first time. I remember every inch of the old la-de-da… building from the height wall to the decrepit crocodile couch. And I remember how much I LOVED getting to go there every week during the school year and for the best two weeks of the summer."

_ Allison Lloyd - former la-de-da student and current diva.

“I no longer think of “La-De-Da…” as being just three simple words. I want to shout, or sing, them from a mountain top because to me they mean that I can do anything and that the world is my canvas and my thoughts are the paint.”

— Laura Murphy - mom/teacher/singer/la-de-da

"When A. was bullied over and over again at school (just before we finally had to pull him out of his school), the only thing that helped him get through his weeks was Nick Turner. I don’t know if he would have survived without Nick in his life at that time. I will always be grateful to Nick and la-de-da. That was the only place he really felt safe and appreciated around kids. Nick makes all kids feel important and special — like they should be. "

- a la-de-da parent

"I personally want to thank you for everything you and Troy did for her. A very smart, very unconventional girl who’s shy doesn't always have an easy time but you both always made her feel welcome and accepted for who she is. I’m glad I’m writing this because if I was speaking to you directly I would probably cry."

- a la-de-da parent

“Much thanks to you and Troy for your most excellent voice coaching. Katie’s middle school choir teacher commented on her lovely technique and inquired as to where she had vocal training. You rock!”

— A la-de-da parent

You guys have been such an important part of his growth. He gets really good roles in his musical theater class and many great solos. I will forever give la-de-da so much credit in his growth."

- A la-de-da parent