Children’s theater will soon become a fixture at Arts of the Pamlico’s Turnage Theatre in Washington.

The nonprofit will launch Creative Dramatics for Youth in February, in a partnership with East Carolina University’s School of Theatre and Dance. The program will be led by Dylan Ritch, a recent ECU theatre education graduate and overseen by Patch Clark, ECU professor of Theatre for Youth and education coordinator. Creative Dramatics for Youth represents a departure for AOP, according to Joey Toler, executive director of the arts council.

“In the past, we have partnered with ECU for a single performance or a single workshop for youth. This is the first time we will offer ongoing activities for children and young people,” Toler said.

Many of those past workshops have been led by Clark, including a School of Theatre and Dance Storybook Theatre production of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic “Treasure Island,” followed by a children’s theatre workshop in March of 2015.

The program schedule is based on three groups: kindergarten through third grade; fourth and fifth grades; and sixth through eighth grades, Toler said. Children will take part in two workshops in which they will create characters, design costumes, learn how to develop a story and write a play, as well as learn the basics of stage acting, according to Toler.

Each group will produce and perform its play for shows open to family, friends and the general public, Toler said.

One of Toler’s main goals since Arts of the Pamlico took over the early 20th-century theater in downtown Washington is to revive community theater. While several staged readings have occurred (“Steel Magnolias” and “Santaland Diaries”) in the recent past, the theater’s first full-scale production, “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” is currently underway.

To spur the children’s theater revival, the price of the program is very affordable, Toler said. Tuition for the program is $20 for AOP family membership holders, and $30 for non-members.

Participants can register by calling 252-946-2504 or by visiting the Turnage Theatre at 150 W. Main St. in Washington. More information about Creative Dramatics for Youth can be found at the arts council’s website at www.artsofthepamlico.org.