About Us
Our Mission
ALL children have amazing potential. We work with children, their parents and teachers to help explore and nourish this potential so that they experience success in school and throughout their lives. Participating in live performances, reading to children, discussing ideas and feelings create the foundation for higher achievement. Our student workshops teach young people how to reason, collaborate, empathize and create. These are the skills that are necessary to ensure success and productivity in the 21st century. We are committed to helping children become responsible, creative, and community minded adults.
About Flights of Fantasy
Since 1995, Flights of Fantasy Story Theater has provided theater programming and arts education services to children, parents and teachers throughout southern California. We offer unique vaudeville-style performances as well as engaging theater workshops for students, outstanding storytimes for preschoolers and instructional Read Aloud workshops for parents.
Our theatrical performances and storytimes celebrate the humor and wisdom inherent in the human experience and introduce the viewer to an array of multicultural literature. Lorrie Oshatz and Theresa Amy put a fresh spin on folk tales, fables and poetry and provide a variety of workshops and professional development that offer new strategies for learning and teaching.
The performances and workshops also enhance literacy and comprehension skills while creating opportunities to build self-esteem and confidence. Our Early Literacy Readiness Project (ELRP) is a program specifically created to develop school readiness for children at preschools and Head Start sites. Our library shows demonstrate the transformational power of theater by using language to construct meaning and story to create the bridge that connects us all to the world family.
Lorrie and Theresa
Lorrie Oshatz has worked extensively in theater and film as a director, writer and actress. She earned her B.A in Writing/ Drama from the University of Arizona and went on to get an M.A. in Film Production from the University of Texas. She has written and directed several original plays in Los Angeles and her award-winning films have been exhibited at film festivals around the world and on television. Lorrie has been the Producing Artistic Director for Flights of Fantasy Story Theater since 1995 and the Executive Director for the non-profit Flights of Fantasy Media Company since 2003. Since its inception, Lorrie has worked to create vital, engaging theater programs for libraries as well as elementary school students, parents and teachers. In 2005, Lorrie created the Early Literacy Readiness Project to provide literacy programming for preschool children and their parents. Then in 2006, the Read Aloud Parent Workshop was initiated. Every year brings new challenges and new accomplishments but Lorrie continues to create outstanding theater programming for children, families and teachers.
Theresa Amy relocated to L.A. from Chicago where she worked with the Players Space of Second City. She has participated in seasons with many theaters across the country including, Stage Left Theatre, Red Barn Theatre, Equity Library Theatre, Alhambra Dinner Theatre, Hooterhyter Children’s Theatre and was a founding member of Zurlag Theatre. She taught drama to children at Just Imagine Theatre and had worked for eleven years with “Roving Readers”, an early childhood literacy program in Chicago to help improve language skills and instill the joy of literature. Theresa is a graduate of the Goodman School of Drama and has also produced educational videos for schools that explore the roles women played in the labor movement at the turn of the century. Since 2003, Theresa has been working with Flights of Fantasy as a performer, instructor and storytime reader implementing first-class programs at libraries, elementary schools and preschools.
