YesView
By Chris Murphy
YES Company is truly a civic treasure. Some of the YES alumni have gone on to do great things in TV and film and it just goes to show how important it is to get kids on stage, performing and confident at an early age. Created and lead by Melanie Wyatt, this year’s production of Beauty and the Beast will be her last as she enters a well-earned retirement. There was a great class of people that came up through the Modesto Performing Arts that have really made a mark on our theatre scene, including Robert Ulrich who is now a Emmy-winning casting director and mentor for the Valley Talent Project. A new chapter is ready to open.
The YES Company will now become a project for the Gallo Center for the Arts and will be lead by the Gallo Center’s Courtney Betschart and new Arts Education Manager Tiffany Davis. She will be charged with the creation of a new arts education initiative, the Gallo Center Youth Academy, an after school performing arts program for students grades 1-6; as well as taking on the management of YES Company after the closing of Beauty and the Beast this summer. Tiffany is ready to take on the legacy of what Melanie and SCOE created and great things will happen as SCOE and the Gallo Center team up to take the arts to a new level.
Please go see Beauty and the Beast this month and say Hey to Melanie and meet Tiffany. The performing arts are in good hands. Beauty and the Beast opens June 20. Get tix at www.galloarts.org
