Sounds of lively music and the clopping of shoes filled The Plaza Art Center June 11-15 as the participants of Camp Broadway learned their lines, dance moves, and songs, preparing for the “big day” – a presentation of the performance to the audience on the last day.
Every year, Camp Broadway challenges third- through eighth-graders to come up with a full-blown production within five days.
“We have a lot more kids involved this year. We've nearly doubled our camp in size,” said the head counselor of the camp Helen Garcia-Carreras, mentioning that there were approximately 40 kids participating. “Also, this year we are doing smaller vignettes as opposed to an ensemble show. It’s really fun because the kids are involved in a lot of different components of theater. It's fun at this camp. A number of our students from the school year come to our summer programs.”
The name of this year's show was “Legends of Our Land.”
“We wrote this piece specifically for this camp,” Garcia-Carreras said, meaning herself, her sister Elisa, and their mother Lora, director of the Arts Barn.
The performance consisted of five tales about American folklore characters, namely Annie Oakley, Davy Crockett, Sally Ann Thunder and Whirlwind, John Henry, and Paul Bunyan. The idea of the story is that five kids are exploring their grandmother's attic and find an old book that they used to read with their grandmother. Grade-five and- above kids are the narrators, who connect every individual story in one vibrant, filled with humor and intermingled with songs, clogging and square dances.
“The biggest benefit of the camp is that they learn so many aspects of what goes into a production, and they realize how important it is sometimes to be backstage,” said Lora Garcia-Carreras. “What you do is never seen, but it's extremely important for all of it to work. You don't have to be in the spotlight to have an important part, and it's a mindset of doing everything to the best of your ability.”
Camp Broadway is a collaboration between The Plaza Arts Center and The Arts Barn. It was a kickoff camp of the summer camps at The Plaza, said The Plaza Executive Director Susan Usry and will be followed by Broadway Intensive and Art camps.
"The next four weeks are all camps," she said. "We love the collaboration with the Arts Barn, and we love that the kids are having a blast. We love having the building full of kids."
The Arts Barn offers classes in clogging, theater, guitar, and ukulele throughout the year.
“This year, we'll be offering tap as well,” Helen Garcia-Carreras said. “We offer a lot of different dance forms and community-building activities. We host the annual Mayday celebration at The Plaza and teach line dancing. We try to introduce the arts to a larger number of people, especially the younger aged.”
The following performance of Broadway Intensive, “Seussical,” is coming up in July.
“All counselors at Camp Broadway are performing in ‘Seussical,’” Helen said.
For more information about the dates and other activities of the Art Barn visit theartsbarn.net. To learn more about The Plaza Arts Center, please go to plazacenter.org.