MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Talent Machine Co. is to give young people the opportunity to study the performing arts, to present their product publicly in a community setting, to teach as well as to learn, and to serve as positive role models for their peers.

The Company produces three full-length musicals each year that are performed in a large theater for the general public. In addition, they perform at school fairs, fund-raisers, community events and parades.

The Talent Machine Co. has open auditions and consists of children from all backgrounds, races and cultural experiences.  Some are disadvantaged and require scholarships for additional training.  All are given the opportunity to advance their skills through participation.

The Talent Machine offers children the unique opportunity of creative expression through the performing arts.  It gives them goals and allows them to focus on achieving skill levels.  It boosts self-esteem while giving them the opportunity to work as a "team" for the best possible performance. It furnishes an activity during a time of year when there are few other teen functions.  It is drug and alcohol free.

What is the Talent Machine? 

It is

v     A magical, mystery tour

v     The most rewarding experience of my performing life

v     The group that gives us the warm memories which are the flowers that get us thru the cold winter

v     My most favorite people.

The woman who wrote these phrases over the years was our most favorite person, Bobbi Smith, who founded The Talent Machine Company in 1987.  Bobbi died suddenly in January 2001, leaving the TMC family wondering if this phenomenon, this magical mystery tour that she had created could continue.

The Talent Machine was Bobbi’s joy, her vision. It began to evolve one evening when Bobbi and a group of her friends were discussing the lack of theater opportunities for children in Annapolis.  They reasoned that, with “a little effort” they could put on a show with kids.  That “little effort” grew and grew, and kids and parents began to catch the theater bug from Bobbi.  Soon the shows included the dazzling touches that were Bobbi’s trademark – confetti cannons, mirror balls, real rain for her “Singin’ in the Rain,” and of course, the snow she insisted on having in her annual holiday production!   But the results made all the “little efforts” well worth it!  Since The Talent Machine’s debut, hundreds of kids have had the chance to hone their singing, dancing and acting skills in a real-life theater, and with Bobbi setting the standards high, these shows have amazed and thrilled audiences again and again. 

Bobbi reveled in teaching, in sharing her love of musical theater with her “kids.”  She told her students to reach beyond their limits, that they could do anything they set their minds to.  And she reveled in their successes, both on the stage and long after they had left the Talent Machine fold. She kept e-mail messages from these kids stuffed into her ever-present, overflowing fanny-pack, which she showed to people the way others show off baby pictures. Bobbi’s message to all of her students, whether they were 5 or 75, was that they could do the impossible. And they did, year after year.