Metropolitan Educational Theatre Network (MET2)

Metropolitan Educational Theatre Network (MET2) is a non-profit educational organization where participants take part in acting, singing, dancing, improvisation, pantomime, and theatre games. Instruction also includes voice projection, stage movement, musicality, choreographed movement, and audition techniques. Everyone who registers and completes the workshops and rehearsals is assured a role on stage in production performances, and by production time all instructional elements come together in a Broadway-style musical.

• Ages: 5–18 years old

MET2’s mission is to provide students of all ages with instruction in improvisation, pantomime, voice projection, stage movement, acting, singing, dancing, and audition techniques, and to encourage self-respect, self-confidence, discipline, awareness, imagination, creativity, determination, social skills, memorization techniques, motor skills, and coordination through creative dramatics, enhancing each student’s self-esteem, grace, and poise on stage and off. The program also offers live theatrical performances to local educational institutions and community groups and provides teachers with a curriculum-based teaching packet, and it offers public performances intended to promote Metropolitan Educational Theatre Network and give the local community a chance to support young people in the arts. Production casts have included 100 to 300 young people from kindergarten through the college level, along with many parents and older relatives of cast members, and the program relies on support from parents, relatives, and friends who fundraise and purchase tickets, though fundraising and ticket sales are not mandatory. No gum, food, or drinks are allowed in rehearsals, parents pay for costumes, and participants are asked to treat costumes and belongings with great care.

Metropolitan Educational Theatre Network was founded and artistically directed by Alex H. Urban until his death in 2007 at age 65, and the company has performed for over thirty years. Alex H. Urban held lifetime teaching credentials in grades K–12 in both California and Illinois, had over thirty years of classroom teaching experience, and taught, counseled, and worked as an administrator and program development specialist for close to forty years, including eleven years as Chairman of the Fine Arts Department at Justin-Siena High School, where he taught Theatre Arts and English. He held Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Illinois in music, psychology, and theatre, completed extensive post-graduate work, and served on the faculties of the University of Illinois, the University of Connecticut, and the California State University system. He published extensively in educational theatre and human relations with Harcourt, Brace, and Jovanovich (HBJ), Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation, and Combined Educational Motivation Systems. The leadership team includes Alex H. Urban as Founder and Artistic Director for MET2 at the time of his death, and his widow and business partner, Kathie Urban.

Alex H. Urban was honored by the National Parent-Teacher Association’s “Who’s Who in American Education,” received Honorary Life Membership to the California Congress of Parents and Teachers, and received awards from the Danforth and Fulbright Foundations and the National Council of Teachers of English. His children’s theatres received official proclamations from the State of California, his contribution to educating young people in the arts was acknowledged by the Life Through Arts Foundation shortly after his death, and in 2014 National Youth Arts posthumously awarded him, along with Kathie Urban, the first honor for Lifetime Contribution to Youth Theatre. MET2’s community involvement includes offering live theatrical performances to local educational institutions and community groups with curriculum-based teaching packets for teachers, and the company has performed in high school, college, community, and dinner theatres, large outdoor tents, and various professional theatrical venues throughout California, New York, Moscow, London, Paris, Australia, and New Zealand for over thirty years. There is a scholarship in Alex H. Urban’s name at Justin-Siena High School and with MET2 for graduating seniors who plan on pursuing a career in the performing arts. One parent testimonial states, “We’ll definitely be with the next show again. I wanted to thank you for making this such a great experience for my daughter in Group A. This...” signed by Connie, parent.

Last updated March 8, 2026.