Open Forum

I am very excited that our school is starting a Theatre camp, during the summer, at our high school. We are opening it up to Middle and High school students in order to build up the community and to build up our own program. I am using a combination of things, but a lot of my material is coming from Will Weigler's 'Strategies for Play Building,' and Jessica Swale's 'Drama Games for Classrooms and Workshops.' As I remember back to my own experiences going through week-long theatre intensives as a high school student, it always seemed flawlessly woven together by the facilitator/teacher. I have lots of games, and a kind of structure, but does anyone have any hints or helps that will make this experience a wonderful and encouraging one for my young charges? We will have about 30-40 kids, approximately. ------------------------------------------- Phillip Goodchild Valrico FL -------------------------------------------

I worked as a teaching artist in this type of environment for a few summers and loved it. It's so much fun to see what an amazing transformation can take place after a week of non-stop theatre!

Some tips I have for this type of program are:

-Have a schedule and routine planned for each day but be flexible.

-Establish camp rules/theatre etiquette right away. Even though it's summer and a fun activity, they need to know how they are expected to behave. We had the students create these on their own.

-Always have "extra" activities planned. We had a variety of ages and experience levels all together in one group, so it was important to allow time for those that needed more help and to be able to provide additional opportunities for those that were advanced.

-Don't do it alone. We always had two teachers (a lead and an assistant) and a student intern (upper high school age or college). This made it easy to break the students into groups if needed, again, helping those who needed more time or assistance, or assigning additional activities. The intern was especially helpful because they could run clean-up or lead simple tasks like improv games while the teachers set up the next activity. Older students in the class would be great for this job too, don't hesitate to give them more responsibility.

-Breaks! Since it is summer, be sure to have breaks/recess and spend some time outside. Our camps were all day long, so we had a couple 15 minute snack breaks and an hour long lunch. We'd walk to a nearby park and let them run around and get out some energy-it helped to refocus them and gave them a chance to bond and make friends.

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Ginny Butsch
Community Manager
Educational Theatre Association
Alexandria KY
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-10-2014 12:24
From: Phillip Goodchild
Subject: Ideas for a 4 day Drama Camp

I am very excited that our school is starting a Theatre camp, during the summer, at our high school. We are opening it up to Middle and High school students in order to build up the community and to build up our own program. I am using a combination of things, but a lot of my material is coming from Will Weigler's 'Strategies for Play Building,' and Jessica Swale's 'Drama Games for Classrooms and Workshops.'

As I remember back to my own experiences going through week-long theatre intensives as a high school student, it always seemed flawlessly woven together by the facilitator/teacher. I have lots of games, and a kind of structure, but does anyone have any hints or helps that will make this experience a wonderful and encouraging one for my young charges? We will have about 30-40 kids, approximately.

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Phillip Goodchild
Valrico FL
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Everything Ginny said is 100% accurate and exactly what I would share too. I was doing a week-long theatre camp (4 weeks, 4 different themes) with a showcase at the end of each week. I'd like to specifically reiterate one of her points: -Breaks! Since it is summer, be sure to have breaks/recess and spend some time outside. Our camps were all day long, so we had a couple 15 minute snack breaks and an hour long lunch. We'd walk to a nearby park and let them run around and get out some energy-it helped to refocus them and gave them a chance to bond and make friends. The kids love every theatre activity/lesson, but it is summer. If you don't schedule time to relax, veg out, do something non-theatre related, it starts to feel like school to them. My age group was a bit younger, so our activities were geared younger, but we had books for quiet reading, nature walks outside, coloring materials set up at tables, and a playground outside. During our musical theatre week, we also spent 30 min each day watching a musical. (We did it right after lunch/recess when all everyone wants to do is sit in a food coma.) You could probably also do that with plays or whatever fits your focus for that week. ------------------------------------------- Jessica Satryan Philadelphia PA -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 06-12-2014 14:18 From: Ginny Butsch Subject: Ideas for a 4 day Drama Camp I worked as a teaching artist in this type of environment for a few summers and loved it. It's so much fun to see what an amazing transformation can take place after a week of non-stop theatre! Some tips I have for this type of program are: -Have a schedule and routine planned for each day but be flexible. -Establish camp rules/theatre etiquette right away. Even though it's summer and a fun activity, they need to know how they are expected to behave. We had the students create these on their own. -Always have "extra" activities planned. We had a variety of ages and experience levels all together in one group, so it was important to allow time for those that needed more help and to be able to provide additional opportunities for those that were advanced. -Don't do it alone. We always had two teachers (a lead and an assistant) and a student intern (upper high school age or college). This made it easy to break the students into groups if needed, again, helping those who needed more time or assistance, or assigning additional activities. The intern was especially helpful because they could run clean-up or lead simple tasks like improv games while the teachers set up the next activity. Older students in the class would be great for this job too, don't hesitate to give them more responsibility. -Breaks! Since it is summer, be sure to have breaks/recess and spend some time outside. Our camps were all day long, so we had a couple 15 minute snack breaks and an hour long lunch. We'd walk to a nearby park and let them run around and get out some energy-it helped to refocus them and gave them a chance to bond and make friends. ------------------------------------------- Ginny Butsch Community Manager Educational Theatre Association Alexandria KY -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 06-10-2014 12:24 From: Phillip Goodchild Subject: Ideas for a 4 day Drama Camp I am very excited that our school is starting a Theatre camp, during the summer, at our high school. We are opening it up to Middle and High school students in order to build up the community and to build up our own program. I am using a combination of things, but a lot of my material is coming from Will Weigler's 'Strategies for Play Building,' and Jessica Swale's 'Drama Games for Classrooms and Workshops.' As I remember back to my own experiences going through week-long theatre intensives as a high school student, it always seemed flawlessly woven together by the facilitator/teacher. I have lots of games, and a kind of structure, but does anyone have any hints or helps that will make this experience a wonderful and encouraging one for my young charges? We will have about 30-40 kids, approximately. ------------------------------------------- Phillip Goodchild Valrico FL -------------------------------------------

If you can get some students to be assistants or other teachers, you will need it for such a large group. If you can split the students into smaller groups it will be more fun. When I did day camps for theatre, we had four different groups which rotated between classes--each group had a student leader who helped with transitions and getting the groups started on new activities. We had make-up, dance, improvisation, and something else which fit with the skills of our teachers (costume design, neutral scenes, theatre games, etc). Students rotated between classes and the camp ended with performances of the dance and improvisation with parents. We took lots of pictures for parents--the camps were simple to produce and a lot of fun. ------------------------------------------- Amy Sidwell Director of Theatrical Arts Woodburn Arts and Communications Academy Canby OR -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 06-10-2014 12:24 From: Phillip Goodchild Subject: Ideas for a 4 day Drama Camp I am very excited that our school is starting a Theatre camp, during the summer, at our high school. We are opening it up to Middle and High school students in order to build up the community and to build up our own program. I am using a combination of things, but a lot of my material is coming from Will Weigler's 'Strategies for Play Building,' and Jessica Swale's 'Drama Games for Classrooms and Workshops.' As I remember back to my own experiences going through week-long theatre intensives as a high school student, it always seemed flawlessly woven together by the facilitator/teacher. I have lots of games, and a kind of structure, but does anyone have any hints or helps that will make this experience a wonderful and encouraging one for my young charges? We will have about 30-40 kids, approximately. ------------------------------------------- Phillip Goodchild Valrico FL -------------------------------------------

This is very exciting! I am doing something similar this summer at a small arts center. One of the first things I thought through was, What do I want the kids to take away from this experience? I decided on two things. First, I wanted to create something that would give the students a taste of multiple aspects of theatre and give them a more well rounded experience. Second, I wanted them to see take ownership of the arts and see why the arts are important and valuable. We will be writing short plays, performing them, designing simple costumes, creating posters for the short plays, then have a performance of each of the small plays at the end of the three week camp. As someone who started in theatre in middle school, thank you for taking the time to invest in your students! It may be tiring, but I assure you it will mean so much to the kids! ------------------------------------------- Jackie Kranenburg The Theatre School at DePaul Troy OH -------------------------------------------
Original Message: Sent: 06-10-2014 12:24 From: Phillip Goodchild Subject: Ideas for a 4 day Drama Camp I am very excited that our school is starting a Theatre camp, during the summer, at our high school. We are opening it up to Middle and High school students in order to build up the community and to build up our own program. I am using a combination of things, but a lot of my material is coming from Will Weigler's 'Strategies for Play Building,' and Jessica Swale's 'Drama Games for Classrooms and Workshops.' As I remember back to my own experiences going through week-long theatre intensives as a high school student, it always seemed flawlessly woven together by the facilitator/teacher. I have lots of games, and a kind of structure, but does anyone have any hints or helps that will make this experience a wonderful and encouraging one for my young charges? We will have about 30-40 kids, approximately. ------------------------------------------- Phillip Goodchild Valrico FL -------------------------------------------