CAMANO ISLAND — Rich and Lydia Crouch aim to “encourage and enlighten.”
With two kids and 21 years of marriage between them, the Crouches run Show and Tell Family Projects, a faith-based theater program on Camano Island.
All of their shows are family friendly and designed to provide young people with a creative way to learn, grow and come together.
About 10 area churches are involved in the productions, and home-schoolers make up about half of the participants.
The next production is a variety show called, “The Offering 2014: Catch Fire.”
It runs at 7 p.m. Nov. 21 and 22, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Nov. 23 at the Stanwood High School Performing Arts Center, 7400 272nd St. NW. Tickets are a suggested donation of up to $8.
“It’ll just be an uplifting evening or afternoon of music and drama and video,” Rich Crouch said.
Both of the Crouches come from arts backgrounds. They are longtime members of Camano Chapel.
When Rich Crouch was working on his master’s degree from Seattle Pacific University, he learned that drama could be a tool for Christian education and bringing people together, he said.
“We’re more concerned about the process that we go through as a cast than we are about the product at the end,” he said. “We believe if the process is healthy, the product can be really good, unique and different productions that really touch to the core of the heart of the community.”
The idea is make people laugh but also feel comfortable — with no worries of being offended by too much skin or bad words, Lydia Crouch said.
The nonprofit’s offerings have included gospel themes, original productions, summer camps, and Thanksgiving and Christmas shows.
Their teenaged children, Davis, 18, and Laina, 15, help with choreography and song-writing. Both have been involved with theater at Stanwood High School.
Young people who take part in the productions are taught to stretch themselves beyond wanting to “be cool,” Lydia Crouch said. Through drama, they can try on different personalities, thoughts and lives.
“It allows them to be brave and courageous in a safe setting, something they’d never do walking across their high school campus or with their homeschool co-op,” she said.
Learn more at showandtellfamilyprojects.com.
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