By Renee Larr
Off Main Street Players in Zionsville will be hosting an intensive week-long camp for children interested in theatre. The camp started in 2008 and has a different theme each year. The camp will be held at Zionsville Town Hall.
“We usually have a theme the kids work around and the theme this year is Whodunit so we’re working with classic Agatha Christie type mystery stories … studying that genre and how those are structured. The end goal for each time we do a camp is for the kids to write, produce and stage an original production,” said Lynne Manning, drama director at Zionsville West Middle School and summer camp director.
There will be two week-long sessions. The first will be July 6-10 for kids entering grades 5-6. The second will be July 13-17 for kids entering grades 7 and up. The program starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. The cost to attend is $250 which includes snacks, materials and a t-shirt. Attendees will need to provide their own sack lunch.
“We will meet our first day and get to know each other and discuss the structure of the camp. We will study different decades. The 20s, 30s, 50s and 60s. We’ll be doing some historic story starters talking about when happened in those decades – what they were known for, music of the day, dances. Then the kids will work to determine which of those decades their story will be set in. We’ll play a variety of improvisational games and then they’ll start crafting their story,” said Manning.
The week culminates with attendees performing their original production for friends and family at 5:30 p.m. on the last day of camp.
Attendees need to register in advance. For more information visit offmainstreetplayers.org.
