Drama Camp How-To
Posted by Danielle Bean in Family on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 3:59 PM
A few different people have asked some questions about the Drama Camp I hosted at my house last week, so I thought I’d write up a little description of it in case anyone else out there is interested in attempting the same kind of project.
I’ve only done this for two years now and I have ... ummmm ... exactly NO drama experience, so I am hardly an expert, But I can tell you what I did. So here goes:
1. Pick a play. My kids begged me to adapt the plots of some of their favorite books and movies, but I knew better. As a writer and an editor, I know what kind of nightmare attempting my own adaption could be, so I keep it simple and use a “ready-made” play. Last year, we did Cyrano de Bergerac and this year we used Oliver Twist, both from Classic Acts. There are lots of different companies out there that cater to school groups and camps, but I have found these scripts to be both fun and age-appropriate. It helps that the plays listed on the site are broken down by age groups as well as numbers of players. We got the “school” discount and I paid just $24 for a play we could reproduce as much as we needed to.
2. Get some players. I invited homeschooling families in our small community here to participate. We have a few large families, so our numbers have been quite good. I recommend working with ages 7 and older. Smaller kids who are dying for roles can fill in as “extras” here and there, but they do tend to bore quickly with play rehearsals and then become disruptive. If you have more than 30 participants, I would really recommend you have at least one other grown up to help you each day. Even with big and capable kids, it can be exhausting to run them through rehearsals while keeping up with everyone’s individual needs, questions, and problems.
3. Set times. I called our week “Drama Camp” because that makes it sound more exciting to the kids, but it was only scheduled Mon - Fri, 1:00 - 4:00 pm each day. Each day we would practice once, take a break with a drink, a snack, and a bit of running like wild heathens through our woods and field, and then we practiced again before their parents came to pick them up. On Thursday, I expected everyone to have all their lines memorized. On Friday we had a dress rehearsal. And then we invited parents and siblings for the “Big Show” on Saturday afternoon, followed by a family barbecue. That’s a total of six days from assigning roles to final performance—a whirlwind experience!
4. Delegate. I charged each child with the task of putting together his/her costume (with help from parents). We found some great stuff at the library, by the way—I had no idea that they had a huge wardrobe of “lend-able” costumes, but one of my players did and she got the job of picking some up for us. Also, I gathered props as we went through the week and announced to kids the things we needed: “We still need a small bell, a chess set, a pocket watch, and a cane—who can bring me those tomorrow?”
5. Keep stuff together. As the kids pulled together costumes and gathered props, I made room for them in our mudroom and they stayed at my house for the week. That way, kids weren’t lugging props and costumes back and forth, potentially losing and/or forgetting them.
6. Chill. This isn’t Broadway. This is camp. This is supposed to be fun. As much as the weather allowed, we worked outdoors. When kids forgot their lines or mumbled them or insisted upon adding spurts of silliness to the play, I went with it. Costumes did not need to be precisely perfect and if we lacked certain props, we faked it. Our front deck was hardly a professional stage, but it served the purpose. I tried very hard to keep our focus on fun for the week—and most of the kids picked up on that. We had very few jitters and a whole lot of smiles on Saturday.
So there you go—that’s it. That really is all there is to it. It’s fun, it’s educational, and it’s free entertainment.
What are you waiting for? Gather up some kids and put on a play!
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