10/5/2022
Education and Outreach
Alyssa La Pierre vividly remembers her first introduction to theater.
When she auditioned for her high school’s elite choirs, the music teacher asked her back for a mystery audition. After La Pierre sang and read a script, she was informed she would star in the high school’s production of “The Secret Garden.”
This experience changed her life.
“It was my first time being in a musical production. It was fantastic,” remembers La Pierre, a lifelong singer who grew up in New Jersey. “My favorite thing about theater is getting to see what message audience members take away from it, and how it will better their lives.”
Now, with La Pierre’s new role as assistant program manager with The Smith Center’s Education and Outreach team, she will provide this same experience for hundreds of Southern Nevada students each year.
In her position, she will oversee the center’s Disney Musicals in Schools program, which helps under-resourced elementary schools create their own sustainable musical theater programs.
As a nonprofit, The Smith Center provides this at no cost to schools.
This marks a perfect fit for La Pierre. On top of earning a bachelor’s degree in theater arts and a master’s degree in teaching from Rowan University, she also worked for several years in a variety of roles at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
“It’s very exciting,” she says of transitioning to The Smith Center. “I’ll be using the skills I’ve learned with Disney and my knowledge of Disney to help further this important education program.”
A Disney Career
La Pierre learned a great deal in her years working for Disney.
Starting with the Disney College Program, she worked her way up through the resort’s Animal Kingdom and Fantasyland, and was tapped for the select team that opened the theme park’s Skyliner aerial gondolas.
“From all the different roles I played with Disney, I really learned I am a people person,” she says, adding that she met students from around the world in the college program. “I love being able to talk with people and learn about their experiences.”
She gained the most satisfaction from helping VIP guests and cross-training with the resort concierge, which involved addressing guests’ needs and helping them plan thrilling activities for their stay.
“Working with resort guests was amazing,” she says. “I spent a lot of time talking to them and figuring out their days, and they’d come back and I could hear all about it.”
Training Teachers in Theater
La Pierre’s people skills will come in handy for her role with managing The Smith Center’s Disney Musicals in Schools program.
Her responsibilities include providing an orientation for Smith Center teaching artists, and assigning them to elementary schools where they will train teachers to put on student musicals.
La Pierre will also oversee the teaching artists as they help participating schools put on a 30-minute Disney musical as their inaugural production.
For this, the teaching artists will help teachers and students learn all aspects of putting on a theater production – including acting, singing, choreography, building props and making costumes.
“The whole goal of the program is to get sustainable theater programs in schools,” says La Pierre, who went through special training for Disney Musicals in Schools in Seattle. “We teach educators to become theater teachers.”
A Lifelong Impact
Just as singing and acting inspired her as a youth, La Pierre knows that Southern Nevada students will enjoy lifelong benefits from participating in the Disney Musicals in Schools program.
Participating in theater productions, whether behind the scenes or on stage, teaches children teamwork and instills a strong work ethic.
“It builds kids’ confidence, and it’s another way for them to make friends,” La Pierre says. “They can take skills they learn from theater and use it with any experience and any job opportunity they have.”
LEARN MORE
To learn more about The Smith Center’s Disney Musicals in Schools program, CLICK HERE.