Meet Jessica Barrios-Jones

Executive Director & Producer

Stage Left Children’s Theater

Our Mission is to provide young people with high quality, innovative, participatory theater arts and training taught by theater professionals and teaching artists.

By providing a fun, yet safe and caring environment where the excitement of the theater is shared by all.

The aim of Stage Left Children’s Theater is to help children develop enthusiasm, confidence, self-esteem, communication and social skills and to grow our ensemble to reflect the diversity of the community we serve.

About the Stage Left Children’s Theater…..

The Stage Left Children’s Theater, Inc (SLCT) was founded in 1999 by Artistic Director Ayn Lauren. She continues to direct for Stage Left as well as our teaching residency program. Jessica Barrios – Jones; one of SLCT’s original students works side by side with Ms. Lauren as the Executive Director/Producer. SLCT is the only non-profit organization in the county that provides a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary education in theater for students from Kindergarten to Twelfth grade. SLCT uses education, collaboration and performance techniques as a catalyst for developing social and professional skills, responsibility, character, and integrity. In its earliest incarnation, SLCT had 25 students who put on a production of Mary Poppins directed by Ms. Lauren. Today SLCT has an enrollment of over 200 students.

Since 1999, Stage Left Children’s Theater’s programs have enriched the lives of hundred of students, parents, siblings, and extended family. The organization employs highly trained instructors, who teach numerous types of programs including acting & vocal classes and workshops. Volunteers are the core of SLCT and help implement several of the programs. This includes community residents, parents and family members, industry professionals, and other field experts who assist in every aspect of the organization from transportation to set construction, book-keeping to playing in the orchestra of a production.

Over the years, SLCT has produced an abundance of mainstage musicals, workshops, and summer programs. Each May, a mainstage production is presented, the culmination of six months of tireless efforts on the part of the cast members, their families, the Stage Left staff and countless volunteers. The mainstage has gone from a 1 weekend performance to as many as 3 weeks of performances during our production of Beauty and the Beast. The mainstage production gives us the opportunity to present theater to students in many cases for the first time, by providing school performances to the local community.

The success of the programs is due in part to partnerships with business, academia, goverment, volunteers and charitable support given by the community. From 1999 through 2007 when the Tappan Studio was acquired, Stage Left used various spaces all around the county to hold rehearsals and classes. SLCT is a non-profit organization that qualifies under IRC Section 501(c)(3) and relies on funding from many sources. The organization’s annual budget originates mostly from tuition and ticket sales along with county and foundation grants, private donations and fundraising activities.