How 22 theatre camp kids write a play...

Day two, here we go!

We started our morning with some relaxation and team building exercises. It started well and they managed to untie themselves from a wicked human knot. But the group dynamic is shifting as we see who is really interested in theatre and who is just here because they couldn't get into Circus camp. Which is fine, it just changes the energy. By the time we got to working on vocal production, everyone needed a time-out:

Camper: This is boring.
Me: Performing a play where no one can hear you is boring.
Camper: That's what microphones are for.
Me: Microphones are for wimps.

(I'll qualify that by saying that the theatre has good acoustics and is less than 100 seats).

They like acting. They don't enjoy the games as much. They don't get that the games are directly related to acting. I think perhaps it would be helpful to explain (or to ask them) why these games are important to developing as an actor. Sure, "Keeper of the Keys" and "British Navy" don't seem like theatre games, but they are all about listening and concentration. These are the basics!

But they pulled it together in the afternoon and really did some incredible work. We went over the basic plot outline we came up with yesterday and divided into groups. Each group then had to fill in the details within that outline. We ended up with four distinctly different stories and 22 very interesting characters, including but not limited to plankton, princesses, a mouse, James Bond, a Greek Goddess, dragons, peasants, and an astronaut. We treated this as their "audition" for the show. Some of them are still shrinking violets, but most of them are really putting it all out there. And some of them we really saw for the first time.

What I love about watching kids do improv and theatre games is their lack of inhibition. They come up with the wildest things and find logical ways of making it all fit together. And then they get up there and run with it. As we get older, we retreat much more into our heads. We think about things too much. We lose the ability to just stop thinking and do it. And, of course, then we work at getting it back. At least, the artists do. We have to relearn how to follow our impulses, they have yet to forget.

So we typed up all their ideas and everything we could from their scenes today. Tonight, The Director is writing the script. Tomorrow morning we will have it in hand and will get right on rehearsing...hopefully everyone will be happy and ready to work. I'm there.

And, as a sidebar, I was more or less offered a job there for the summer today. It took two days. Finally, someone gets me.