Jamie Wilcox has started a new act in her life.
The former Egyptian Theatre YouTheatre director is now channeling all of her energy into Buzz Kidz Utah, a global nonprofit that champions child development through the arts.
“Buzz Kidz is an organization that started in South Africa, and so far the only program outside of that country is right here in Utah,” she said. “It feels very kismet that this opportunity came to me at this time.”
Buzz Kidz is a multi-faceted curriculum for ages 0 to 13 that uses original songs and dances to teach life skills, according to Wilcox.
“We work with students at a school during school hours, and we can work with students after school at their schools or in another space,” she said. “We also have a program called Buzz in the Box that is tied into the Buzz Kidz curriculum standards of certain grades.”
Buzz in the Box is a “treasure trove” for teachers who want to make their classrooms more accessible, creative and impactful, Wilcox said.
“It’s not only designed to help teachers reach more kids,” she said. “It teaches kids lessons that will stick with them. If you learn concepts through songs and motions, you will remember more. And we can do teacher training.”
Although Wilcox has been director and owner of Buzz Kidz Utah for nearly two years, she was introduced to the founder, Hanneke Mackie, 15 years ago while they both attended the University of London’s Central School of Speech and Drama.
Wilcox was working on earning her master’s degree in applied theatre.
“One of my friends on the course got her undergrad in acting from the University of Capetown, and she was friends with Hanneke, who was visiting London from South Africa,” she said.
Wilcox immediately noticed Mackie’s love of theater education.
“We really hit it off,” she said.
In 2012, Wilcox, who had been teaching at the University of Utah’s YouTheatre program, took her job at the Egyptian Theatre and created her own version of YouTheatre.
Throughout the years, the Park City-based program taught kids not only how to perform on stage, but also how to stage manage, run lights, run sound, as well as create costumes and sets.
“When I started YouTheatre, Hanneke went back to South Africa where she started Buzz Kidz,” Wilcox said.
Wilcox kept a tab on Buzz Kidz and Mackie throughout the years.
“I saw how Hanneke created an empire and was what I call ‘buzzing’ all over South Africa,” she said. “They had offices called ‘Buzz Towers’ and recruited hundreds of employees who worked in schools and communities throughout South Africa.”
Mackie created songs and dancers that did more than complement the country’s first-, second- and third-grade curriculum requirements, Wilcox said.
“She wrote all of the stories, and they are about three characters — Thandi, Zadie and Ben — adventure kids who go through experiences together,” she said. “Hanneke first comes up with a theme and then writes an adventure around the theme. We have eight themes to date.”
Mackie then writes the music and works with professional composers to bring the compositions to life.
“Teachers don’t want students to just memorize facts for tests, and studies show that kids learn and retain more through songs and dance,” Wilcox said.
The coronavirus pandemic took a toll on Buzz Kidz, according to Wilcox.
“I remember watching a live stream of Hanneke announcing the shut down of the Buzz Towers,” she said. “I saw her turn off the lights in spaces where all the furniture was gone.”
However, COVID didn’t keep Mackie down for long, Wilcox said.
“She pivoted and created content for all the teachers who still had to teach their kids virtually,” she said.
Although Mackie survived the shutdown and things began to pick up, she started to realize she wouldn’t be able to maintain the Buzz Kidz quality through the program’s growth by training all the people by herself, Wilcox said.
“It was taking too much of herself, so Hanneke decided to franchise,” she said. “She felt she could do more if she found and taught the right franchisees to pass the curriculum on to their own instructors.”
Wilcox reached out to Mackie.
“I knew all of her work was in South Africa, and I was in Utah,” Wilcox said. “But I still wanted to ask if I could help.”
Mackie’s reply took Wilcox by surprise.
“She wanted to know when we could talk about starting a program in Utah, and that’s when I got nervous,” Wilcox said with a laugh. “I had a lot of things going on, but she kept poking me.”
After the two met, Wilcox knew she wanted to be part of Buzz Kidz, and Mackie gave her blessing.
“Hanneke said they were being courted by a lot of franchise brokers in America, but she found they didn’t have the right heart,” Wilcox said. “She had chosen every franchisee herself and had turned away many who had money.”
Wilcox’s heart appealed to Mackie because of the child-development work YouTheatre invested in its students.
“I love putting on a good show,” Wilcox said. “I love the high-production values, but my favorite thing is watching kids who are backstage and scared going on to perform and coming back different people,” she said. “Not every kid is a sports kid, but theater is a team sport. I’ll fight anybody to defend that, because of the skills they’re learning.”
Those skills include simple and precise communication, critical thinking and problem solving and even working with unlikeable people, Wilcox said.
“During productions you don’t have to like everybody, but you have to respect everybody,” she said. “Everybody is important when you put on a show, so you have to put aside differences to put the show on and make it work.”
These skills were once called “soft skills,” a term that continues to offend Wilcox.
“I call these skills 21st century skills because I have seen the difference in how collaboration, communication and confidence make every day in these kids across the board,” she said. “These skills help them talk with adults. These skills help them give presentations in front of people. They may be nervous, but they aren’t scared to do that.”
Wilcox asked Mackie for a year to establish Buzz Kidz in Utah.
“I told her by then I’d have two themes under my belt, and I’ll know what we would need to do in order to adjust the curriculum for the U.S. school market,” Wilcox said.
Wilcox recruited her sister, Ellen Hatch, who for the past 12 years, has been working at Title One schools in Salt Lake City’s public school system.
“She has seen programs come and go, but once she joined the Buzz Kidz conversation, she wanted to be a part of things,” Wilcox said. “And it’s invaluable to have her perspective.”
So far, Wilcox and Hatch have taken Buzz Kidz programming to Glendale, Salt Lake City and Kamas.
“I’ve taught during school hours and after school hours,” Wilcox said. “I’ve also done the independent workshops in separate spaces, and we have been very successful.”
All of the teachers have shown “wonderful” support, according to Wilcox.
“They know when we’re coming, and they clear the space so everyone, even the boys, will be able to dance,” she said.
During the summer, Buzz Kidz Utah will facilitate camps at South Summit Middle School.
The dates and themes are:
- July 27-30 — African Safari
- Aug. 3-6 — Superheroes
“The camps are for ages 5 to 7 and 8 to 10,” and will run from 9 a.m. to noon,” Wilcox said.
Registration for the camps is now open at utah.buzzkidz.org.
Buzz Kidz is also hiring instructors for the camps, Wilcox said.
She seeks people who enjoy working with young people and sharing the magic of theatre. Those who fit that criteria can email her at [email protected].
“We don’t know what we’re preparing these kids for, but the skills they learn, those 21st century skills will never not be sought after,” she said. “We are getting vindication now, all those people who called these skills soft, are now calling them ‘hot skills.’ It’s the collaboration, the critical thinking and the communication. And it’s all of these things theater kids have in spades.”
For information about Buzz Kidz, visit buzzkidz.org.