From the restaurant industry to East Haven’s Cabaret on Main theater venue, life is all about being creative and putting on a performance wherever you go. From being a chef to the director at the theater, this is a core belief of Neil Fuentes.

Neil is the director of all productions at Cabaret on Main, including this year’s holiday-themed show, Elf the Musical. A few weeks away from showtime, the production is currently in its polishing phase as its performers are finely tuning their characters and their placement in the story.

“The whole show has been already put together in a way where people know exactly where they’re going, where they’re coming from. They know exactly where they need to start. All we’re doing now is cleaning, working a little bit more into the acting, into the emotions,” says Neil. “They are continuing to work on the background, their music...and they continue to work on their choreography.”

As a director, Neil likes to move fast with the shows, progressing through a single act in one day and, in that time, helping the venue’s youthful performers get in touch more closely with their characters and their emotions. Neil describes himself as a “hands-on director...more on the stage with the actor than sitting here and directing,” as he guides actors through a scene. The way to help actors go further with their performances and become better in the process is by pushing them in a positive way. It’s a fitting approach for a place that isn’t just a theater, but also an educational facility in acting where the students are believed in by their director.

“I totally believe that a child is a sponge and they can absorb and learn anything you give. If you do it with positive reinforcement and tell them how wonderful they’re doing and how they are able to do it and [say], ‘Yes, you can,’ yes, they can,” Neil says. “That’s what I want to bring into this town. Don’t underestimate the children. They can do more than what you think, and we prove it every time we put them on the stage.”

All of this inspires Neil as a director, who works off the portrayal of the actor’s performances to establish other visual aspects of the show. If a character is experiencing a sad moment, Neil will ask, “What type of lighting should be happening here?” Neil says he cannot “get inspired until I see them doing the work.” That’s when he writes the color and focus of lighting into the script.

“I don’t go with a preconception of ‘This is going to be green and white.’ It can’t happen because the art is not exact,” he says.

Cabaret on Main may have opened last year, but Neil has been in performing arts spaces for almost 30 years along the shoreline. In the culinary field, he’s worked in restaurants and has been featured in cooking entertainment segments that aired on WTNH and the Food Network. From the food on the menu to the decorations and the action as part of the script of the culinary arts performance, it was always exactly that: a creative performance.

“I had the fortune that my activity has something to do with entertaining. I was working for a chain of restaurants here in Connecticut, [and] we created this party system, and we created a catering thing, and that was my thing,” says Neil. “My parties...I will create an Aladdin-themed party or a Frozen-themed party.”

When seeing the performances of young actors at Cabaret on Main, Neil is touched by their transformations from shy and quiet children into passionate performers.

“Throughout the years, I’ve seen children come here, and they haven’t been able to speak, and five years later or three years later, they’re singing a solo song on the stage,” he says. “I think that’s more magical than directing.”

Neil says that Cabaret on Main provides an inclusive space for children of all abilities, where they can take the confidence they have built from their director’s push and the shows and apply it anywhere they go in life. Neil recalls a former performer he once worked with who went from a nervous actor to now a confident CEO of a company who can speak eloquently at a business conference with no fear. Neil feels that’s the beauty of the transformative power of theater.

“Theater creates architects, theater creates lawyers, theater creates teachers, theater creates politicians,” says Neil. “The best politicians were probably in theater before!”

Tickets for Elf the Musical can be found at Cabaret on Main’s website at www.cabaret-on-main.com. Showtimes are Fridays, Nov. 10 and 17 at 7 p.m.; Saturdays, Nov. 11 and 18 at 7 p.m.; and Sundays, Nov. 12 and 19 at 2 p.m.