Students Liliana Minjia (left) and Oscar Casas (right) read from a script during class at the Actors Playground School of Theatre inside the Turner Academy of the Arts at the Count Basie Center for the Arts. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Walk east from Pearl Street down the block and half stretch of Monmouth Street in Red Bank on a weekday night, and you might think you’re on some kind of sprawling performing arts campus.
The sound of a band of teenagers practicing a Led Zeppelin song booms from School of Rock. Students carrying guitars walk in and out of Lakehouse Music Academy just across the street.
And a block away, kids dressed half in their school clothes, half in theater costumes mingle with others carrying violin cases in and out of the Count Basie Center for the Arts, home to a slew of different educational programs.
On a recent Wednesday, an elevator ride to a basement studio at the Basie’s Turner Academy of the Arts took a visitor to one corner of this arts education mecca that is marking a perhaps unlikely milestone: Actors Playground School of Theatre, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this month.
When he started the school, founder and artistic director Ralph Colombino was confident the idea would work. Others, not so much.
He struggled to find a bank that would give him a business loan to get things going.
“I went to at least fifteen different banks, and one of them even laughed and said, ‘What do you really want to open?” Colombino recalls.
Colombino, who had taught acting at five different places, including Monmouth University, said, “I trusted my instincts that it would work.”
He opened with more than 100 students, along with a financial and emotional boost from a certain Freehold-born international rock star and his wife, who enrolled their young son.
Over two decades, Actors Playground has launched a few students’ film and theater careers, and, even more importantly, bestowed life skills and a crucial sense of belonging on scores of others.
“It’s the kids that find their place, where they can find their voice and where they’re accepted – that’s what the school is at its core,” Colombino said.
The school operated only in Freehold for 15 years before forming a partnership with the Basie Center five years ago. It now holds classes in both locations.
Students Ben Whalen and Declan Kelly act out the role of two friends in an argument at the Actors Playground School of Theatre inside the Count Basie Center for the Arts as artistic director and founder Ralph Colombino looks on. (photo by Brian Donohue)
The school offers two tracks, one for students aged 8-12 and another for those ages 13-18.
“Usually if we get a kid at six, seven, eight years old, I’d say 90 percent of the time we have them until they graduate and sometimes beyond,’ Colombino said.
redbankgreen readers may recognize Colombino as the slightly off-kilter main character in our 2024 and 2025 April Fool’s Day videos. His school’s success, however, is no joke.
Alumni have been accepted into every top-tier theater conservatory, including ten currently enrolled at Rutgers University’s prestigious Mason Gross School of the Arts. Notable students include Shea Grant, starring as Claudia in Stranger Things on Broadway, and Ryan Buggle, a series regular on Law & Order: SVU for eight seasons.
But Colombino describes the true mission as something larger.
Actors Playground is also home to the Playground Theatre Project (PTP)—a socially conscious ensemble of student leaders who tour the country performing original plays about pressing social issues, including bullying, racism, mental health, and violence. Their critically acclaimed piece Lost Angels has run for ten years and remains a catalyst for conversation and healing among young audiences.
Following one recent performance at a teen wellness conference, Lanette Mantle, Adolescent Health/Suicide Prevention Program Manager, was quoted in the school’s press release saying: “Many kids said they finally understood what they were going through and wanted to know how to get help. This play gave them the words.”
There’s also the Mini Misfits, a peer-led troupe of elementary-aged performers delivering an anti-bullying message to young students across the region.
A press release announcing the school’s 20th anniversary put it like this: “Actors Playground isn’t just a school—it’s a sanctuary.”
“It’s not just a place where he could study his craft, hone his skills, and feed his passion,” said one parent. “It’s a place where he could feel safe, encouraged, and cared for.”
redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
