The Drama Camp--a Mountaintop Experience

I have to say that the Drama Camp has been one of the high points of this summer.  It has been some incredibly hard work, true dat...  But it has also been a wonderful experience mostly because of my amazingly dedicated, focused, and upbeat camp counselors who--get this--VOLUNTEERED their time to work with the young actors and actresses of the K-3 set.

The first good thing is that both camp sessions sold out.  At $75 for two weeks of half-days, it was a bargain.  And for what we gave, it was a steal:  a t-shirt, crafts, a snack, free play, theatre games, special presentations by guest actors, a field trip to the theatre, a framed photo of each kid, and a complete mini-production, complete with sets, costumes, and sound effects.  

The second good thing is that the framework of the camp was well set-up.  With me as overseeing director, two counselors assigned to each group (as director and assistant director), and two floating counselors to fill in anywhere they were needed, it worked very well.  I provided the structure, the content, and basically produced both plays, but it was the drama-teens who did the hands-on with the campers.  It ran SO much more smoothly than last year.  We worked a lot of the bugs out, expanded the camp from 15 to 20 kids, and broke the big group up into two smaller groups.  We came in every day with a plan; everyone had their assignments and for the most part, everything ran like clockwork, unlike last year when so much of what we did was 'what can do to fill the time until the end of the day?'.  We met each morning before the kids arrived to review the plan for the day; and at the end, we debriefed what was working and what needed tweaking.  In this way, it turned out to be not only a camp for the campers, but for the counselors as well, giving them experience in working with children, practice in being role models and on the job training in directing plays. 

 This is not to say that everything was perfect.  We learned that two weeks was not really enough time to produce the polished plays that we like to present.  The counselors were young and being theatre people, easily distracted (said the pot to the six kettles).  We did have to be flexible is the space we have, which could not support more than two groups of ten, each working on a play in a separate section of the room.  And we had issues, some larger than others, that needed hammering out each day. 

But the amazing third thing that worked and totally made the entire experience a high-point for me was my hard working camp staff.  They are truly to be admired for their dedication, their hard work, their patience with the kids.  There were amazing challenges in working with such youngsters, but their commitment to their craft, their desire to share their love of theatre, their patience, their faith, their good humor, their dedication never wavered, not once.  At the end of the first session, I asked who wanted to come back and five out of the six returned (the sixth had to go on vacation).


Aaron, Amanda, Charlie, Hannah, Jayme, Joe, Mitch.  My faithful, devoted camp counselors.  Working for nothing but the love of the game.  They remained undaunted and amazingly positive in the face of campers who were non-readers, had short attention spans, and possessed virtually no understanding of lines, cues, voice projection, or presentation, at all.  It was their upbeat attitudes, their dogged determination to join me at the ungodly summer hour of 8 a.m., their willingness to do the mundane and un-fun chores of mopping up spills, taking children to the restroom, cleaning up after crafts, sweeping the Dungeon and taking out the trash that kept me going.  At the end of every day, listening to them share stories of their interactions with the kids, the small theatrical victories, the funny stories, their laughing complaints, the touching moments, made my heart swell with love.  Knowing that we all had the common link, that love of theatre connects me to them and fills with love and admiration for these focused and dedicated young people.  


It was an amazing, uplifting experience, and I'm lucky, proud--and honored--to know them.  And I can't wait to do this again next summer.

My Favorite Memories from "Sleeping Beauty and the Beast"

1)  Wesley dancing with the sleeping Avery.
2)  The gorgeousness of the dancers in their costumes.
3)  My steady and protective young people in the booth; my faithful stageparents in every corner of that theatre.
4)  So many friends and former KidsPlayers in the audience.
5)  Beautiful and ethereal Ariel as Princess Rose.
6)  Tough, coy Megan as Snow White.
7)   Queen Julia Child.
8)  "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"
9)  Alec preparing to lick his fur clean.
10)  Striking that set in an hour and half...
11)  Our elegant medieval lobby from ratty old lace curtains and material scraps.
12)  Prince Charmless and the breath spray.
13)  Attendance at all three performances.
14)  Igor in the dance.
15)  The poems and roses moments...

My Least Favorite Day...

I'm thinking that my least favorite day might actually become my MOST favorite day.


For the longest time, I hated the day after the show, because that was the day that everyone came up to me and apologized for not attending the show over the weekend. (I have an entire 'act' that I do surrounding--ask me some time....)


But now I'm thinking that my least favorite day might become my most favorite day. The amount of positive feedback I've gotten from this show has been absolutely amazing. I've had parents calling me up and telling me about OTHER children (besides their own) in the show who were good. I've gotten FaceBook messages and e-mails. On Monday morning, I was at GCHS and a woman that I see there frequently (but whose name I don't know) saw me and stopped dead in the doorway, gave a loud 'aahhhh', and proceeded to tell me how wonderful the show was, that she'd seen several and this was our best, the whole thing was totally engaging and when such-and-such character did this or that, oh, it was SOOO funny!


Wow. And not to mention the fact that we smashed attendance records. Over 700 people saw the show and that doesn't even count the matinee. Totally amazing.


And I don't think ONE person stopped me to say, "Oh, was this---this wasn't---it was! It was your show weekend, wasn't it? And I missed it! Oh, I'm so sorrrrryyyy...." Not one.


So, the day after the show, when I usually spend most of my time telling people, "Oh, it's okay. I know you're busy and you couldn't make it. Don't worry about it...." was spent with, "Thank you. Thanks. Wow, thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!" instead.... My least fave day is now my most fave day. ;-)

These days won't come again...

As director, I watch the same show over and over and over again. You think I'd get tired of it. I never do. Never. Today is the last day ever that I'll watch "Sleeping Beauty and the Beast". It seems impossible. And I feel the precious moments of my life slipping by before I can grab them. I don't want to take my eyes off the stage. I might miss something, something that will be important to remember years down the road. I want to memorize every nuance of every performer and permanently imprint it on my brain. I want to soak it all up--the color, the lights, the music, the warmth of the young people standing near me in the tech booth, the smell of the coffee in my hand. I want to walk around and burn every detail into my senses. I want to personally speak to each and every parent who has helped make this happen. I want to hug every single child in this show one more time before it's over.

Over. Too soon. Where does the time go?

Worries Falling Away...

I'm exhausted this evening. I've felt SO stressed for the past week, worrying about this presentation that the KidsPlayers were to make for the Hancock Community Foundation. There were costumes to finish up, lines to be learned...the details for the event were vague...no one knew exactly what the timeline for the event would be because no one knew how long any of the acts prior to our performance would take. And then I had an untried actor as my lead...a very talented young man, but undisciplined in the ways of character and the use of the actor's tools. And I had no idea how he would react in front of a crowd.

We spent a great deal of time last week working on just the scene we were presenting--the timing, the lines, the bigger-than-life characters I was asking for... We even went down to the theatre one evening to walk through it a few times.

And then yesterday--a very busy day. We moved the Gallery in the morning, and the preview performance was in the afternoon. My actors showed up in plenty of time--one concern alleviated. They looked GREAT in their costumes--another hurdle down. We ran the scene out back a couple of times and all the lines and characterization were there). Finally, it was time to do it in front of the crowd--and it went spectacularly. My leads gelled, they meshed, the shone!!! And I could feel my worries falling away, my shoulders straightening, my smile returning.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a show!!

Plot Summary of "Oklahoma"

Now don't get me wrong.  I LOVE the musical theatre.  I never tire of those old Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals, the Lerner & Lowe gems.   I truly believe that musical theatre enhances my quality of life like nothing else.  Still, looking at "Oklahoma", one has to reflect at just how simplistic the plot for this delightful classic is....

 

OKLAHOMA

True to expected male behavior, Curly shows up ON the day of the box social to ask Laurey to go with him.  He disses her; she sasses him.  He paints her this fantastical castle-in-the-air lie about taking her to the box social in some pimped-up carriage and when it turns out not to be true, she is pissed and promptly marches straight to the smoke house to strut her stuff in front of the creepy, sullen hired hand, Jud.  What Jud’s issues are, I’m not sure, but I suspect they’re related to the displacement of Native Americans from their homeland by the Oklahoma Land Rush.  In any case, Jud asks Laurey to the Box Social; she inexplicably agrees to go.

A ‘Box Social’ is apparently an event where, upon walking through the door, everyone immediately forgets with whom they came with because the apex of the evening involves bidding on various picnic baskets and then leaving with the owner of said picnic basket as arm candy.  Laurey came with Jud, Curly came with that harpy skank, Aunt Eller.  Of course, Laurey’s basket is the last one to be bid upon and, until the very end, it looks like Jud is going to be the victor.  Curly takes note of Laurey’s terror at being ‘won’ by Jud (even though this WHOLE scenario is HER fault) and proceeds to sell off all of his personal effects to members of the crowd (his saddle, his horse, AND his gun, which we suspect he may regret later) in order to outbid Jud and win Laurey’s goodies (so to speak).  Curly does manage to persevere and, in spite of having ransomed all of his available means of support (saddle, horse, gun), he and Laurey run off stage to wedded bliss.

The final scene finds Laurey and Curly about to go off on their honeymoon when Jud shows up.  Curly decks him with just one punch, and the drunken klutz falls on his own knife and dies.  For some reason, this is Curly’s fault and he’s due to be arrested and go on trial for murder.  Ten minutes before they’re to hop the train for their honeymoon, someone in the crowd who professes to be a judge (ah, the justice system in the old west) pronounces Curly not guilty.  “Never mind the furthermore, the plea is self-defense.”

Finally, finally, after suffering through petulant female performances, chauvinistic male posturing, and those tedious ballet interludes, we are treated to “Oklahoma”, the finale, for which we’ve waited the entire performance.  We immediately forget about all that and leave with a bright golden haze on our meadows and a song in our hearts.  The end.

Next up:  Ado Annie—Pre-Feminist Role Model or Frontier Slut.

Crossing the Bridge

I usually call this moment 'turning the corner', but because we're using Eileen Ivers' "Crossing the Bridge" as part of our musical interlude collection, THAT'S what I will call it this time.


I always have to write about this moment because it never ceases to be magical for me.  Every show starts with such high hopes.  I cast to the best of my ability, filling the parts with just the right people, and we rehearse--regularly, plodding along, running the scenes, adding to them, building them, putting in 'bits'.  We work and work and work, and suddenly, we reach a crisis moment.  I'm so stressed by rehearsal, pressured by self-imposed deadlines, trying to reach seemingly unfathomable standards for performance, character development, and actor's skill.


It seems especially difficult this show.  It seems like show after show, I pound home the idea that 'you are a real person, with real feelings, real language, real reactions...'  But this time, I've asked them to be something different.  Our spoof fairy tale requires larger than life characters, big Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd mugging, double-takes, asides to the audience, over the top reactions and movements.  That, combined with comedic timing, lines and blocking has made this show a pretty big challenge.  But...they're getting it.  Slowly but surely, they're getting it!!


We're doing a scene for the Hancock County Community Foundation's event on Sunday.  I've been so nervous, because I knew we weren't good.  Not up to our usual standard.  What we had was ordinary, amateurish, child-like.  But last night, the magical moment came...with patience, hands-on directing, and repetition, it came.  Working with my leads on the scene we're going to do--it clicked.  It was funny.  The parents I had in the audience laughed.  *I* laughed.  The timing was there, the playing to the audience, the facial expressions, everything!!  And it makes this week's restless, toss-and-turn nights, the stressful, high tension days TOTALLY worth it.


We have a show!!  My Kids are BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, TALENTED...  They never cease to amaze me. Mmwahh, my KidsPlayers!!!  ***  I adore you!