Cobb Children's Theatre is a non-profit, all-volunteer corporation governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of qualified administrative and artistic directors. The company was founded in 1970 and directed by Sherry Lanier. In 1978, a large restructuring took place when Sherry moved out of the community. The Board of Directors of CCT saw a 7th grade production of Rip Van Winkle directed by Leslie and Norm Karstensen and asked them to come on board.
For 21 years CCT, under the guiding force of Leslie Karstensen, has had a dramatic impact on the lives of over 3000 children in Cobb County and their families. There have been over 55 productions of such classics as Brigadoon, Oliver, West Side Story, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, Fiddler on the Roof, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Cobb Children's Theatre has had eleven Storytime productions, nine adult theatre division productions, and numerous touring productions. In 1999, the reigns of CCT were passed on to Leslie and Norm Karstensen's two sons, Ryan and Gavin, to continue the process.
Cobb Children's Theater has three goals:
To serve the community by providing quality theatre done by young people for children of all ages.
To provide an opportunity for the young to learn to appreciate and produce fine theatre.
To provide young people an opportunity to learn and achieve all that their blood, sweat and tears will allow.
We are not in the business of grooming professional children. We are not a springboard to stardom, nor do we encourage or assist in creating a career for children. CCT is a learning tool, meant to help children through the trauma that is adolescence.
CCT is a production company offering a total theatre experience. Members may join us believing theatre is just a performing art, but they soon learn better. It takes a company to do theatre.
Theatre is a totally disciplined and multi-faceted art form - visual, craft and performing. Art is not chaos. Members are encouraged to dream, to create and to look for new things in themselves. Talent alone does not produce fine theatre - hard work and courage do. To stretch, to risk, to be led by imagination, to follow a dream - this is what we're all about.
