By Tamara Odisho Benjamin

Kidstock is a performing arts program teaching kids how to sing, dance and perform. Each show is carefully curated and imagined by the executive team. The team dreams up exciting stories that delight both performers and many audience members.

Students can participate in the program four different ways; in-school, after-school, during winter/spring break or through a three-week immersive summer camp. At the start of the program, each camper gets a script and tries out for a part before being assigned a character. There is no small role; each character has a special part in the show. Everyone sings, dances and acts.

After a semester of weekly rehearsals, songs and choreography, students get on stage and perform to an audience of family, friends and teachers. Their hard work earns them cheers, applause, and no show is complete without a good laugh. The Kidstock team selects shows that are light-hearted and filled with joy.

With its iconic logo – a star embellished with its top hat and cane – Kidstock was the brainchild of the dynamic mother-daughter duo, Jane Anne Sullivan and Noel Donovan.

The Sunset Beacon sat down with Jane Anne on a February day at her home in the Sunset, where she was busy writing Valentine’s Day poems to her family at her long kitchen table.

“I have a lot to send and need to start early,” she said.

Jane Anne writes more than 70 cards every year. As mom to eight kids, 22 grandkids and 26 great-grandkids, she has a knack for bringing joy and entertainment to kids of all ages.

Murphy Brown, Jane Anne’s sweet pup, obediently sat in a chair keeping her company as she completed her task.

Also by her side were her children – Noel and Hannah Sullivan – and Kidstock executive team members, Bradley Galliani and Melissa Suncin, who reminisced about how Kidstock began.

Starting at St. Anne Catholic Church as an after-school program in the 1980s called the Sunshine Band, they brought together 20 kids from the school to learn and perform songs at parish and school events, always ending with its signature song, “You are My Sunshine.”

Quickly it became a cherished program that other schools wanted to share with their students. As it grew from a homegrown program into a repeatable curriculum, Sunshine Band became Kidstock as it is known today. They now serve about 2,000 students across all four programs and at 13 schools from San Mateo to the Sunset District, and in the Mission and Potrero Hill. Kindergarten students through eighth grade are welcome in the in-school and summer programs. The after-school programs invite third graders through eighth graders.

“Tea for Who” was the very first Kidstock Summer program held at St. Thomas the Apostle in the Richmond District. Written mostly by Jane Anne, the immersive show transported the audience into a tea party with dancing, songs, biscuits and, of course, tea.

As Noel and Jane Anne recalled the origin story, Hannah Sullivan and Suncin, who are Kidstock alums and now part of the executive team, nodded and chimed in piecing the story together. Murphy Brown piped up with her enchanting “yip, yip” as to say “I agree.”

Suncin, the company’s creative director, was roped into Kidstock because of her brother Michael. He went to high school with Annie, Noel’s oldest daughter, who got Michael a job working at Kidstock. While her brother worked, Suncin, in seventh grade at the time, became a Kidstock camper. Although she did not enjoy being on stage, she thrived backstage with props and scenery.

“Acting doesn’t have to be your thing to find your place or your people. If you like being on the side, you learn along the way,” Suncin said. “It’s what kept me coming back. It’s a big family vibe and I got to know the other kids.”

She started getting more involved taking on different roles including as an intern, and filming for more than 10 years.

Galliani, the group’s program director, came on as a summer camp teacher after high school. Noel saw him performing on stage at Archbishop Riordan High School alongside her daughter Dora in “Anything Goes.” Throughout his 12 years with Kidstock, he has been a pillar as the St. Anne site director before moving into his current role.

When it comes to writing scripts, the team works hard developing authentic new story lines and content. The students enrolled in both the yearlong school programs and summer programs have never repeated a show.

“Once I see who is on the roster, I bulk up the script because I know what these kids can do, Suncin said. “We don’t cast them for the roles, but we keep them in mind. There is so much heart and effort into customizing it. We do it for the magic that comes out of the campers.”

Jane Anne added, “I love how proud the parents are when they watch their kids on stage, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Hannah Sullivan, operations director, loves all the different perspectives she has, from being a former camper, to watching her kids participate to working on the executive team.

“It’s fun to see that some things change and others that don’t,” Sullivan said. “We started long ago with 20 kids and now after opening summer registration we already have over 350 kids signed up.

“Parents tell us all the time that they plan their summer vacation around the Kidstock schedule,” Sullivan continued. “It feels so nice, and it’s validation that we are doing it right”

Community, patience, love and understanding with a deep emphasis on children are at the core of Kidstock. Ensuring these values are replicated, a list of norms have been incorporated to be used when onboarding board members and staff. These norms are part of the mission statement but are theater-based.

“We have the best job,” Suncin said. “All we have to do is make families, but really the kids, happy. It is really all about the kids. Our decisions are always kid-focused.”

Jane Anne smiled and added, “I am always charmed by how welcoming all the kids are on the first day.”

To learn more about Kidstock, visit kidstockinc.org.