Business school will teach you to assemble a board of directors, present budget proposals, legalize nonprofit status and work peacefully within a committee.

Or, if you're a middle-schooler, you can learn the same things by starting a theater troupe.

Two extraordinary Charlotteans, Abby Corrigan and Matt Mitchell, have set that full-fledged dream in motion.

They represent the tip of an arts-based iceberg, thousands of young performers and crew members who are enriching their minds and spirits in a way that gets too little ink in our profit-obsessed world - even though what they learn makes them smarter, more productive people.

The arts have been more marginalized than ever in the last decade, both in education and public life. They're seen as luxuries, vaguely desirable yet impractical in a time of dwindling budgets and fiercely competitive job markets. Matt and Abby kick those misconceptions off the stage.

This pair, best friends since meeting at Eastover Elementary School, will be eighth-graders this fall at Northwest School of the Arts.

They also manage Treehouse Acting Company - not as a lark, but as the most satisfying job they could imagine.

Their second production, "A Tree With Arms," will run Friday through next Sunday. Matt is directing this story of backyard jealousy, which escalates into a nasty rift between two cliques. Abby's designing the show, in a reversal of last year's chores, and both will act in supporting roles.

Most remarkably, kids their age will also handle all tasks associated with a stage production: running the sound board, calling cues as stage managers, handling props, working lights.

Along the way, their self-image and sense of accomplishment will improve. They'll become more flexible, capable, well-rounded. Think of it as a summer camp for life lessons.

"To create something - a picture, a dance, a role in a play - out of nothing but your own creativity and imagination requires that you truly know yourself and your gifts," says Charles LaBorde, a busy local actor and the first principal at Northwest. (He stayed there 14 years and retired in 2008, just before Matt and Abby came.)

"Such personal awareness is tough at any age, but especially (for) adolescents. Quite often, the arts are the best path to such awareness. One can learn admirable skills from sports, such as functioning as part of a team. (But) performing arts - chorus, dance, orchestra, theater - remove the element of competitiveness and allow for true cooperation toward...a successful performance."

Not that you have to begin your own company to benefit from taking part in these endeavors.

"You can get the same excitement from a school play or a church play," says LaBorde. "A lot of church theater is rewarding and doesn't require a monetary investment.

"Even on the fringes of a production, you benefit. I teach part time at CPCC, and one of the requirements is that students work so many hours backstage. They tell me, 'I can't believe how much fun I had painting that flat. I did something I didn't think I could do.' And when they see it onstage, they think, 'That door opens and shuts because of me.' You don't have to be a star to have a sense of pride and ownership."

A unique collaboration

Abby and Matt started, as so many kids do, with cozy, informal shows in her backyard. They stayed busy until 2010 with roles at Northwest and in local companies, from Children's Theatre of Charlotte to Queen City Theatre Company.

They created Treehouse to explore producing opportunities. If any local youths have attempted so complex a project, I can't recall it in 32 years at the Observer. Adults take kids to rehearsals - none of the actors and technicians can drive - but stay out of creative decisions.

Treehouse began last year with "Alice's Adventures With Poorly Cooked Cafeteria Seafood," a trippy show featuring Lewis Carroll-like hallucinations. Abby cast that play from a pool of friends and led rehearsals in her parents' humid garage. "Alice" was done in a cramped building on Clement Avenue; admission was free.

This summer, open auditions brought more actors than needed, and the cast and crew swelled to 17. Tickets will be sold this time. Rehearsals and performances take place at the new Carolina Actors Studio Theatre in NoDa, where they - not their parents - negotiated rental rates with CAST's Michael Simmons. (He gave them a good deal; he's on the Treehouse board of directors, along with Matt and Abby, their four parents, actors Jill Bloede and Kevin Campbell, and attorney William Joey Barnes.)

Every cast member and backstage worker agreed to put up $200 to underwrite production expenses. In return, they'll be mentored by experts, including UNC Charlotte theater teacher Bloede. During tech week leading up to the show, they'll be in the theater every day from 9 to 5, as a traditional summer camp might require.

"This year, we're looking for sponsors," says Matt, 14. "I've had to call businesses and ask for support, which is hard. The advantage to being a nonprofit is that contributions are tax-deductible. It helps us, I think."

Treehouse hopes to raise $1,200 in sponsorships and bring in $2,400 in ticket sales. Its production budget hovers around $3,800 for the set, costumes, lighting, props, designer fees and theater rental.

Because so many folks are involved, there's more need than ever for cooperation.

"When I was younger, I was majorly bossy," says Abby, 13. "Working with a big group has taught me to collaborate. I have less need to be in charge. I can say, 'I have an idea. How about this?' And we'll work together."

For a lot of kids, Treehouse might have become the equivalent of a demanding puppy: They'd swear to walk it but hand the leash to mom and dad once it became a burden.

Matt and Abby did ask adults for help with their set, so designer Jim Gloster and set builder Chris Timmons offered expertise. The young duo hopes to take on those duties in future seasons, because they want to minimize adult participation wherever possible.

Their parents did chip in some of the dough for the $1,000 nonprofit certification, but Abby and Matt tapped their savings to pay other bills. They've also grown savvy about cost-cutting, recycling part of the modular set from last year's "Seafood."

Both moms see added maturity in their offspring, who have shot into young adulthood.

"I've known creative artists so nonlinear they could barely function in the real world," says Mitzi Corrigan, Abby's mom and a professional casting director. "Abby has always been a creative spirit, and I thought (Treehouse) would marry that creativity to responsibility. She's better able to see the bigger picture now."

Jenny Mitchell, a lawyer, has watched her son evolve over the last two years into someone sharper and more sophisticated: "I hear him talking to businesses in a telephone voice beyond his years. I watch Matt and Abby solve problems or present their set and costume needs to the board, and I see they know what they're doing."

Few children will go on to make a living as performers or theater technicians. But every child can benefit from this kind of exposure, whichever side of the footlights they prefer. And they needn't pay summer camp fees: Devotion and sweat equity will earn them a valued spot in school productions, at Matthews Playhouse or Children's Theatre of Charlotte or many a community theater.

Any kind of exposure can inspire the self-confidence, spontaneity and beyond-the-box thinking needed in all professions. LaBorde underwent a theatrical transformation himself, moving from consumer to participant as a boy in Texas.

"I was able to emerge from my nerdy bookishness and become someone special, at least for those times I was onstage," he recalls. "Like so many other student performers, I was impossibly shy. (I) was able to overcome that shyness by assuming the identity of someone unlike myself - a hero, a villain, a clown - in a play."

LaBorde has spent his life in and around theater. Abby and Matt may walk that path, too: They've talked about following dreams to a professional level.

But whether they become accountants or auto mechanics or attorneys - or the hottest addition to a hard-driving investment firm - arts backgrounds will make them more adaptable, imaginative thinkers. It could do the same for any of your sons and daughters.