Theatre Camp: A Retrospective

Last week I blogged about my adventures as a Theatre Camp counsellor for March Break. I never did quite get to give you all the scoop on our grand finale, though. And now, Tuesday, I've had just about enough sleep to finish the story and to reflect on the experience.



To recap, in case you haven't been following, my Theatre campers were 22 energetic girls and boys, ages 7-13, with varying levels of experience both in theatre and in camp. The plan was that in five days (well, four and a half really) we would collectively learn about performance skills and improv, find out what makes a play, write and rehearse an original script of our own, and put on a performance. No small task for kids of any age. To facilitate this, we had The Director. To supervise the inevitable chaos, we had me. Ready, go!



Well, we spent two days playing games and brainstorming ideas. By the end of day two we had a place, characters, a problem, something to raise the stakes, and a conclusion.



The Curse of the Shadow Creature. Set in a medieval village, with a slight detour through the lost city of Atlantis. Our main characters were Princess Crystal, her sidekick "Warehouse Mouse," a peasant named Bill, and the Queen. There were also dragons, a pair of Greek godesses, and the Grim Reaper brothers, to hit the highlights. Everyone had a part and at least one line or special moment. The main problem was that the vain Queen was turned into a Shadow Creature and subsequently turned all her subjects into zombies. To make matters worse, the Grim Reaper brothers showed up and started dragging everyone off to the Netherworld. Of course, in the end, Princess Crystal and her friends saved the village, everyone was restored, and the evil doers realized the error of their ways. And everyone lived happily ever after. The end.



All we really did was point them in the right direction and set the words down. Every single idea came from the kids. It was really cool to watch them come up with these wild and crazy ideas and to make them all fit.



Then they rehearsed like mad all days three and four while I organized sets and costumes. By the morning of day five, they were ready to rock. More or less. They took their notes with grace and most of them really listened and adjusted. Then The Director did tech (with real lighting cues!) while I ran through the most intense line through of their young lives so far. By the time their parents showed up for the performance at 1:00, they were all off book and the nerves were setting in. I distracted them by dancing around wildly to Beyonce songs backstage. Which is obviously what you're meant to do before any performance.



We opened. And they were damn near perfect. No one missed an entrance. No one dropped a line. There was one little flub, but other than that they were bang on. They were even quiet and hidden in the wings (no small feat, I assure you). I was so impressed and so proud! And so exhausted!!



Now that I've had some time to recover from the whole experience, I have some thoughts on how it went, on what I would do differently in the future (or in the summer, since I've been asked to come back), and on what they really accomplished. Not all of it is terribly relevant to this blog and most of it isn't interesting if you weren't present for the whole process. But what I will say is that I have so much respect for what those kids did in such a short time with such relative ease. 22 of them wrote, workshopped, rehearsed, and performed a play in 4.5 days. There are groups of professional actors who would find this challenging, if not impossible. I am in awe of them! And I'm grateful, because despite the chaos and the stress, they had me thinking creatively again. Like an actress. Like a director. Like an artist. It's a difficult thing to do all on your own all the time. Sometimes you need someone to remind you how it all works, and no one can do that like kids.



I definitely think I have a future as a teaching artist. I like helping people. I like collaboration. I work well with others. It's just how I roll. And watching sort of from the sidelines all week while dying to get more into the game made me positive I can do it. So I'll hopefully be moving up the food chain for the summer time, getting some more experience, and joining the world of after-school drama programs in the fall. Or that's the plan this week, anyway.