The arts in the Rio Grande Valley continue to grow. 

A local theater club is providing a safe space for kids to express themselves in hopes of getting them to the next level.

All-Star Theatre in McAllen has been around for over a decade. They help kids develop a love for the stage, while also encouraging them to reach for the stars.

"When I was a kid, it was something I always wanted to do. I would beg my mom to put me in acting classes, because I was so interested in it," Executive Artistic Director Joel A. Garza said.

What first started as a place for adults to express their artistic selves, slowly became a safe haven for kids with a love for theater.

Garza says they started hosting summer camps for kids nearly 15 years ago.

"That year, we did 'Annie' and it was so fun, kids of different ages, different abilities, because this really hadn't happened. Then we started reworking and refining the program to what I would have wanted when I was a kid," Garza said.

Theatre isn't just about letting go on the stage, but also about learning skills that will stay with you for a lifetime.

FOR MORE MADE IN THE 956 STORIES, CLICK HERE.

"The set of skills that you learn in the theater is applicable, at all points of your life," Garza said.

All-Star hosts a theater camp every summer for the kids, and we got to see it first hand. Some of them go on to do great things as they get older and continue their lessons.

"It was the first place I found that in the Valley, a space where I could, explore the arts, explore myself and kinda defy expectations," Owen Enslein said.

Enslein was a part of the All-Star Theatre kids camp for over a decade. That helped him land a spot on the Broadway Evolved Program.

It is based in New York and helps students and faculty learn professional growth with the world's biggest Broadway stars.

"It's an auditioned-based program, so you have to pass an audition screening to get in and once you're in, you get opportunities to work with like the biggest names you know on Broadway," Enslein said.

Enslein started his training online during the pandemic. He couldn't have done it without the support of his All-Star family.

Now at 18, he has been accepted into Texas State's prestigious musical theatre program. He'll start school in the fall.

"They have a cohort of 12 to 14 kids every year, internationally, and it's a lovely program," Enslein said. "To be able to see confidently that I'll be going to one of the top universities in the country, it gives me so much reassurance to know I can later go out in the world with the training I received and make a mark."

Helping Valley kids land their dream roles on Broadway and theaters across the world, All-Star Theatre is Made in the 956.