SUMMER THEATER CAMP
CAMP 2024!!!
Camp will take place on Saturday, August 3rd through Friday, August 9th, 2024 (no camp on Sunday). Here are some basics:
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Camp normally runs Saturday through Friday (no camp on Sunday).
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The camp day will be from 10am to 3:30pm.
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The performance on Friday at 5:30pm.
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Campers will need to bring their own lunch, but we will provide an afternoon snack.
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Registration is $375. If you register more than one sibling, the cost is $350 per child. We have scholarship funding available if cost is an issue.
CAMP IS FULL!
Please let us know if you have any questions: pcivetta@att.net.
Camp starts with a simple theme, like “wishes” or “disguise.” As a group, we will brainstorm and improvise around the theme, exploring it from many different vantage points. Then, each child will write her/his own story, and it connect to the theme in any way that s/he likes (our youngest campers get help from staff to whom they dictate their stories). Next, each child will share their story with the group, exploring exciting questions and ideas that people discovered within it. After 4-5 kids have read, we break into small groups. The groups are charged with creating an improvised scene that incorporates at least one element from each of the stories that they just heard. This process, which we call “scrambles,” helps everyone discover what their favorite ideas are and to mash up and create even more, crazier ideas. Once everyone’s story has gone through this process, we pause again to let everyone express their favorite ideas thus far and offer new ones.
That evening, Peter writes an original script based solely upon their ideas including original songs. The next day we present to them their play, and we begin the process of staging it. At any given time, some kids will be working on staging the play, while others are learning their songs and choreography. Still others are designing and painting our backdrops, and others will be working on costumes and props. Our goal is to have them fully involved in every step of the process, seeing how theater is made (hopefully empowering them to make their own shows with their friends and family down the line). By Friday, we are ready for our command performance, and even though they only got the scripts and songs two days earlier, no one will have a script in hand. They are so invested in what they correctly view as their show that it is as if we had been rehearsing for weeks. Their joy and ownership of the show is the most amazing and gratifying part of camp for the staff.
