This one-week program builds students' acting, creative expression and public speaking skills, helping students perform confidently onstage in a variety of settings. Through daily monologue work, scene work and a variety of electives, the students will discover how to create rapport with the audience and let their personal charisma shine.

Monologues

Learn techniques and practice exercises designed to increase your range, projection, articulation and character development. Participants learn the building blocks to realistic acting through playing objectives (what the character wants), obstacles (what stands in the way), and tactics (how the character tries to get around those obstacles to accomplish her objectives). In the final monologue showcase, students perform for fellow campers, families, and friends.

Ensemble Scene Work

Theater at any level is a collaborative process. Working effectively in an ensemble requires that an actor possess both the skills to shine when the spotlight is on them and the ability to support the other members of the group when it’s their turn in the spotlight. Each day, students will practice exercises that help them vocally project, physically tell stories, as well as emotionally and intellectually connect to other characters sharing the stage.

Electives: Elective offerings vary and will depend on the specialty of the faculty. Possible electives include:

• Improvisation: Act without a script! Learn about spontaneity, sharing control, and status while creating scenes and playing games that focus on your intuition and ability to create situations together.

• Reader's Theater: In this fun and popular event, students write and perform a short play (or learn and perform a play for other students). Students create their characters, devise plot twists, write dialogue, and deliver partial practice performances followed by the whole play.

• Audition Workshop: Even the most talented actors and speakers might still experience stage fright. Learn helpful tips to overcome the fear of an audience and casting directors!

• Mask-Making: Masks add another unique, creative dimension to each character. Students will learn to improve gestures and body language to enhance the characters created in the masks.