Curated Theatre Arts

(424)206-3897
190 E 600 N Moroni, UT

curatedtheatrearts@gmail.com

(424) 206-3897

190 E 600 N Moroni, UT

About Curated Theatre Arts

Curated Theatre Arts (CTA) is an exciting opportunity for people of all ages in Sanpete County to gain a high-level arts education. What sets CTA apart? They are a multi-disciplinary performing arts academy, where they are equipped to train every aspect of performance to help their students develop into true “triple threats”. Their offerings include classes in dance, vocal training, theatre, and even writing.

CTA is committed to providing courses that emphasize developing proper technique and form and encouraging students to pursue the highest levels of excellence in their gifts and talents, while also maintaining an atmosphere focused on integrity, family values, and overall modesty in behavior, dress, and performance selections.

CTA was founded by Claire Yarrington, who has a 40 year career teaching privately as well as running a highly successful performing arts school and production company in California. When Claire began her teaching career, she noticed a deficit in programs that were in alignment with her values but still placed importance on helping students become the best they could be through focused, intentional, and in-depth artistic development. Claire worked consistently to create a space where students could pursue their arts interests at a high level and not have to compromise their standards in the process. Through this framework, many of Claire’s former students have gone on to professional careers in the arts.

Now, Claire is bringing this same model to Sanpete. CTA’s offerings include a variety of dance styles, with a heavy focus on improving strength, coordination, flexibility, balance, endurance, and all qualities that develop artistic expression, with an emphasis on body mechanics to avoid injury.

Using 30+ years of studying and teaching voice, Claire also helps singers of all experience levels through private voice lessons and a vocal performance workshop class, designed to incorporate the most effective aspects of private vocal instruction into a supportive group setting.

With several experienced local artists on staff, including Threesa Cummings (theatre, voice), Maddie Senator (Irish dance), and McKall Ruell (World Dance, Clogging, Ballet, Lyrical Jazz), the CTA faculty is well-equipped to help performers of all ages and levels to excel and share their talents with the world. With the CTA model, which curates both a class and performing environment where high-quality, inspiring, and uplifting art of all mediums is produced and shared, students are provided the ideal conditions to flourish into the very best they can be.

With their eyes on the horizon, CTA is looking to train performers of all ages throughout Sanpete County with plans to open a performance company within the next year, bringing additional performing opportunities as well as exceptional live theatre to be enjoyed in our community.

A Fascinating Journey

In our theatre we collaborate to produce the most amazing thing in the world – art. Every show is a unique piece of work that matters to all our actors who put their souls into it. Come and feel the great energy that we share eagerly.

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Our Team

Claire Yarrington

Artistic Director, Voice, Dance, & Theatre

Claire has enjoyed a career spanning four decades of involvement in performing, directing, and providing positive instruction and mentoring in the performing arts; including founding the original CTA model through California Theatre Arts in Walnut Creek in 1984 with the vision of providing a high-quality integrated program of study in theatre, vocal performance, and dance. In 2001, she became the Artistic Director of CTA Crossroads Theatre, a position held in regional theatre for eight years.

Claire has instructed and mentored in all the performing arts starting at age 19, and believes that all teachers, regardless of age or experience, should continue their education along with their instruction of students. With certifications from the Royal Academy of Dance, Music Teachers Association, Speech Level Singing, Virtual Coaching, and BA degree from BYU, Claire has also expanded qualifications through study with professionals in voice, acting, classical ballet, tap, modern dance, flamenco (in Madrid, Spain), ballroom and social dance (BYU) and theater dance. (A complete resume is available upon request.)

In addition, she has directed, produced and/or choreographed more than 100 musicals, plays, showcases and reviews, including Equity approved productions of Into the Woods and Cinderella, and regional professional productions of Seussical and Footloose. As Artistic Director, she guided Crossroads Theatre through seven seasons, including a world premier (Little Women) and two northern California premiers (Seussical, High School Musical.)

Combining skills of directing and production with performing arts education, Claire has directed three acclaimed performing groups (Young Performers Company, Harmony West and Triple Threat) and taught thousands of adults and children, including several who have gone on to careers in the industry. Her first production since moving to Utah was Easter, A Cantata composed by Janeen Brady in April 2023.

Claire considers among her greatest accomplishments a 44-year marriage to her husband David, three children and twelve grandchildren, including budding performers. Experiences as an instructor, performer and director have given her the vision, skill and determination to guide students with high moral standards in a pathway of integrity with their values. She has enjoyed teaching with Broadway professionals on both coasts and guiding students with a commitment to excellence regardless of amateur or professional status.

Jennifer Hernández

Administrative Director

Jennifer grew up in Southern California, and began singing and dancing from a young age, from performing in theatre productions, singing with the South Bay Children’s Choir, learning several styles of dance through her high school dance program, and even learning hula from her Hawaiian grandmother.

As an adult, Jennifer was awarded a teaching scholarship in dance as part of an initiative to help improve academic status through the re-introduction of arts into the schools in underprivileged communities.

She also continued studying hula intermittently with the Antelope Valley-based hula halau - Ka Pa Hula ‘O Kawailehua.

Later, she sang with the Antelope Valley College Concert Choir and performed as a soloist in the Bach cantata ‘Herz und mund und tat und leben’. She later sang with choral composer John Leavitt in his Kansas City-based female choral ensemble, Jubilee Singers. Most recently, she performed as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah at Snow College and in Janeen Brady's Easter Cantata.

Prior to getting married, she spent several years working in accounting and lending. Later on, several years into their married life, her husband changed career fields, starting a marketing agency, of which she is an integral part. These prior experiences prepared her to help bring CTA to life here in Sanpete County.

Besides CTA, she currently spends most of her time homeschooling her 3 young children and continuing to help her husband with their business.

Threesa Cummings

Voice & Theatre

Threesa is an accomplished singer, dancer, actress, music teacher, and choir director. She studied piano from the time she was a small girl and gained significant experience as a pianist in the small church branch she grew up in. She then trained in music and vocal performance under Hedley Nosworthy at El Camino College and Marian Bodnar at Cal State Long Beach.

Threesa has many stage credits, including Eliza (My Fair Lady), Dorothy (The Wizard of Oz), Lillian (Cheaper by the Dozen), The Rat King (Nutcracker). She has also performed as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah and was selected to be a soloist in Europe through the Applied Music program at El Camino College.

She worked as an associate director with the South Bay Children’s Choir and has directed many community choirs and small musical groups over the years. She also spent many years teaching private piano and voice lessons.

Following this, Threesa opened a private homeschool academy and created a robust theatre program. Threesa produced and directed many productions at the academy, including The Secret Garden, Hansel and Gretel, Little Women, Each in His Own Place, I, Nephi, and A Christmas Carol. She also worked with the students in the program to create original productions.

In addition to CTA, Threesa also directs the Sanpete Family Choir, an all-ages choir that prioritizes choosing music that expresses joy, gratitude, and worship. They believe in curating performances that include not only beautiful music, but inspiring and uplifting messages. They are currently in their 5th season.

Maddie Senator

Irish Dance

Maddie loved to perform as a kid, directing and acting in full-length shows based on her favorite movies and books with her siblings and the neighborhood kids, being in two Shakespeare productions while attending American Heritage School, and acting in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever two different years at The Valley Center Playhouse (Lindon, UT), once as Beth the narrator (the good girl) and once as Imogene Herdman (the bad girl), for which she won Best Youth Actress in the playhouse’s Oscars ceremony.

Maddie discovered a love for dance in her teens when a friend introduced her to Irish step dancing. She was self-motivated to practice and learn everything possible until she could earn her own money to join the Power Academy of Irish Dance (now Harp Irish Dance Company). There she progressed quickly, soon becoming a student teacher for beginner and intermediate dancers; performing regularly with her teammates at festivals, in parades, and at various other venues; and traveling for state and regional competitions, earning a heap of medals and trophies, until reaching the preliminary championship level. She stopped competing in her early twenties right after winning first place in her last prelim competition, which would have allowed her to move forward to open championships, but college and other responsibilities became her priorities.

At BYU Maddie participated on the Folk Dance Team (performing in Christmas Around the World) for a semester and was an Irish dance TA for several semesters. She took many other classes offered in the dance department and gained some experience in tap, clogging, ballet, social dance, and Polynesian dance. She also took Scottish dance lessons from Highland Peaks Dance Studio for two years, performing with the Wasatch and District Pipe Band and participating in three competitions, winning the first-place trophy for her level at one of them. Maddie found that her Irish hard shoe dancing prepared her well for tap and clogging and that her soft shoe dancing prepared her well for both ballet and Scottish, though Irish dance is still her expertise. Her dance strengths are posture, footwork, elegance, timing, precision, and technique.

Maddie graduated from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in English literature and a minor in editing. She and her husband live in Ephraim with their three little boys and she occasionally works as a freelance book editor after her kids are in bed! Recently she began taking piano lessons again after many years and has started getting back into tap dancing. She loves to help dance students improve and excel, and she is very excited to serve the Sanpete community!

Mckall Ruell

World Dance, Ballet, Lyrical Jazz, Clogging

McKall is a Manti native and has loved the performing arts from the time she could walk. She studied ballet, tap, jazz, voice, and musical theater for 6 years at Manti Music and Dance Studio, and was even accepted into the Musical Theater Senior Company and performed all over Sanpete. She studied folk dance, Latin social dance, and pointe at Snow College, learned clogging from Jennie Peterson (Sanpete Stompers founder).

McKall studied Family History and Genealogy at BYU with a minor in World Dance. There she took advanced clogging classes and world dance, including focused instruction in Polynesian, Irish, Indian, Russian, Scottish, Spanish and tap dance. Her favorite part of her BYU experience was being part of the International Folk Dance teams and performing in Christmas Around the World twice and Festival of Nations three times. After graduating, she went on to pursue a master’s in history at USU, specializing in 19th century women’s history, 19th century Mormon/Utah history, and public history.

As a dance instructor she has taught at Manti Music and Dance (Creative Movement, Jazz, Ballet, and Musical Theater), at Ephraim Elementary School while attending Snow College, and at the M.T. Rush musical theater camp. Her stage credits include Alice (The Miracle Worker), Barbara (My Turn on Earth), and Narrator (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat).

Graduating with her master’s degree in December of 2023, McKall hopes to blend her love of performing arts and especially world dance with her knowledge of Utah’s historical heritage. She believes that the arts are a beautiful way to learn about the countries and cultures of the people who immigrated to Utah, and to expand our understanding and connection with our ancestors and with the people and cultures from around the world. When not dancing, singing, acting or studying history, McKall spends her free time with animals, learning and planning for her future homestead/fiber farm where she hopes to keep the historical practices of homesteading and self-sufficiency alive.

Marinda Cummings

Dance Assistant

Marinda is a born performer. From the time she was little she sang in choirs, performed in stage productions, including leading roles as Mrs. Medlock (The Secret Garden), Echo/The Witch [understudy] (Hansel & Gretel), Mrs. Nephi & Narrator (I, Nephi), Jo March (Little Women), and Jacob “Josie” Marley (A Christmas Carol). But her true passion is dance. In the last several years, she has taken her love for dance and taught herself a variety of different styles, including English Country Dance and several other types of folk dance. She also received prior instruction in swing and square dance. She has had several opportunities to teach as the choreographer for productions with the Sanpete Family Choir, as well as being invited to private events to teach dance. She is thrilled to be receiving hands-on training with Claire Yarrington as both a dancer and a teacher, and looks forward to taking on classes of her own in the future.