Peter Sklar

Early life and education

Sklar was born on April 3, 1949 in New York City. His father, Harold, was a public elementary school principal and his mother, Sybil, taught special needs students at New York’s Bellevue Hospital.

Sklar began to study piano at 6, and at 12, he was awarded a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied classical piano and music theory.

In 1965, while trying to interview Martin Luther King, Jr for the New Rochelle, New York chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, 16-year-old Sklar was arrested at King's hotel in Philadelphia. In 1970, while a student at the University of Hartford, he was part of a group called Concerned Connecticut Citizens for Sincere Dialogue and participated in a demonstration against a visit by Spiro Agnew. Also while a student, he wrote several articles published in the university newspaper UH News addressing racism, the environment, and other controversial issues of the time.

He studied education, psychology, and theater arts at the University of Hartford and University of Massachusetts and was admitted to the Harvard University Graduate School of Education based on a theater arts program for disadvantaged children and teens he developed at a youth center in Boston. He earned a Master's degree in Education (Ed.M.) in 1978. Sklar's contributions to the youth center in Boston were chronicled by the center's founder, Fred Rosene, in his book, Making a Difference.

Career

After he graduated from Harvard, Sklar moved back to the New York area. In 1981 he founded and directed a vocal showcase in New York entitled the Professional Children's Revue, where he worked with young actors appearing in films, TV, commercials and voiceovers, including a teenage Sarah Jessica Parker, Justin Henry, and Lori Loughlin and most of the child actors appearing in the original casts of Broadway's Annie and Evita, and the revival of Peter Pan.

In 1983, Sklar began to speak on the connection between child development and the arts. His talks evolved into a series of lectures, presented several months each year to high schools and performing arts venues throughout the United States and Canada. Topics include the role of self-esteem and health in achieving success in the professional performing arts field.

From 1984 through 1988 Sklar made a series of visits to Belfast, Northern Ireland to interview children on both sides of the struggle between Catholics and Protestants. After speaking with Northern Irish children and teens, he sponsored visits to the United States by several of each faith where they studied alongside his American students.

Sklar's early work with professional children evolved into a yearly resident performing arts workshop entitled Beginnings, which he founded in 1984. The program provides training in acting, voice, dance, and writing by working New York actors, directors, playwrights, casting directors, and choreographers, and culminates in an Off Broadway showcase at the Orpheum Theatre, Union Square Theater, and other New York City theater locations.Mischa Barton, Reese Witherspoon, Zachery Ty Bryan, Hunter Parrish, Kirsten Storms, and other actors have attended Beginnings.

In 1995 Samuel French, Inc. published a collection of monologues containing dramatic and comedy pieces written by Sklar, entitled Winning Monologues from the Beginnings Workshop, with additional pieces written by actor and writer, Mark Weston, a former instructor at Beginnings.

In 2004, the workshop began offering training with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, as well as classes with industry professionals from British television, film, and theater, including performers and directors from London's West End and the Royal National Theater.