Discovery Playhouse: more than day care

"Most people, if they don't have kids, don't know what happens here," said Michael Toeniskoetter, executive director at Discovery Playhouse.

Located at 502 Broadway, Discovery Playhouse is often falsely dismissed as day care.

"The general perception of who and what we were, kind of an indoor playground, has spilled over into the modern day. We're equated to a less-supervised day care. That is not what we are anymore," Toeniskoetter said. "We haven't been that for about a year. Since I took over about a year ago, we have had employee educators on our staff. We have Ph.D.s and double-masters on our board. We have built several strategic partnerships as well as several pilot programs that we are in the process of either building or rolling out."

According to Toeniskoetter, Discovery Playhouse is quickly transforming into a "world-class" educational center. For example, he explained that, unlike most day cares, Discovery Playhouse houses real dinosaur fossils.

"As far as I know, we are the only museum in the nation that actually lets the kids do real paleontology work. They put on lab coats and glasses, and then clean fossils while we educate them about what they are doing," Toeniskoetter said.

Discovery Playhouse education coordinator Joseph Taylor, left, and executive director Michael Toeniskoetter stand behind children participating in Dinosaur Camp 2021. Toeniskoetter said the organization is increasing its educational opportunities.Courtesy of Haley Morgan

The change from indoor playground to learning laboratory is relatively recent, and more projects remain planned.

"There's still a long road for us to get where we want to be, but we are now on the right track," Toeniskoetter said.

Without losing the "fun" of experience, the aim, Toeniskoetter said, is to make Discovery Playhouse "the most educational and hands-on learning center in the area."

But it isn't only children the playhouse serves.

"We are drawing traffic into the downtown area. When the founders put this institution here, it was to create an anchor point in the downtown district which could bring in families," Toeniskoetter explained, adding the nature of downtown businesses has changed for the better over time.

"Putting [Discovery Playhouse] where it is was a very strategic move, because when you bring families, you attract other businesses. It created an area that feels safe," he said.

Toeniskoetter said downtown has become a "high-traffic area."

"Now, with all the businesses and restaurants coming into downtown, we can provide Southeast Missourians with big-city experiences, build out programming, become a community resource and an educational hub, right here," he said.

Service

In 2020, a food pantry called the Playhouse Cupboard was opened in order to "destigmatize and combat food insecurity, while educating the same community we are feeding," Toeniskoetter said. "We are constantly building and evolving to meet community needs."

Toeniskoetter said he is also looking into expanding teen outreach, after-school programming, evening programming, and has partnerships with various organizations to transform the organization into "a centralized hub for everything that the community needs."

Despite its diversity of purpose, the playhouse gravitates to a central objective.

"The main mission of who and what we are is the creation of learning laboratories. We don't want people going to St. Louis and Memphis (Tennessee) when they can have that stuff right here," Toeniskoetter said.

Behind the science, community service remains firmly embedded in Discovery Playhouse's core ethics.

Kelly Downes is the organizer of the Happy Campers Project, one of Discovery Playhouse's strategic partnerships.

Beyond Discovery Playhouse and the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, where Downes is director, several Cape Girardeau businesses have signed on with the project.

"Every organization that participates in the Happy Campers Project also takes part in the SPARKS (Shawnee Park Arts, Rec & Kids Sport) camp offered by the City of Cape -- we're all doing that this week," Downes said.

As school activities wind down for the summer months, things continue to heat up at Discovery Playhouse.

Starting the week of June 20, Discovery Playhouse will host Dinosaur Camp. Later, during the week of June 27, its will host Space Camp. Participants can register for the events, while spots remain, at discoveryplayhouse.org.