I recently heard about a study undertaken at a Canadian university to determine what successful teens had in common. If the parent of a 12 year old wants to maximise the chances of their child emerging from their teenage years as a confident, successful, promising and generally ‘good’ human being, what is it they must do? The response of the study was this: all successful, thriving teens have one thing in common… an activity they are good at. Something on which to focus their time and energy. Something that raises their self confidence, and make them feel they have a valued contribution to make in the world, no matter how small. The nature of this activity is immaterial. What matters is that the young person feels good about doing it. The chosen activity is ‘theirs’, and helps them to see what it means to work towards something and achieve results. In this one activity – whatever it may be – others look up to them. They feel valued and respected because of it.

This is reason alone for some young people to attend theatre camp, theatre workshops and acting classes. But there are many other reasons, too.

Drama is a social activity. It requires an understanding of team work, collaboration, problem solving and effective communication. In other words, youth develop all the same skills in an acting workshop that they would develop in an intensive leadership program. Drama workshops also encourage young people to grapple with the often-complex motives that determine human behaviour. Young actors explore what makes a person – and the world – tick. The more you understand others, the greater your capacity for empathy – as well as personal happiness. But drama also provides young people with a forum in which to look critically at their world. They can formulate, in acting class and in collaborative performancs, ideas for how they feel their world needs to change. After all, the future belongs to them. Finally, drama – as with all creative activities – encourages young people to think outside of the box. To find new ways of looking at old problems, and new ways of expressing ideas. This is a skill that has infinite applications; it’s the one thing that all hugely successful people have in common – the ability to see opportunities where others do not.

But then there’s the age-old issue: why create theatre? Isn’t theatre dead, these days? Why don’t all acting camps focus on film acting?

Some of our programs do focus on film acting – but acting on film is not the same as learning how to create something for a live audience. Young people who perform in front of a live audience are sharing in a timeless tradition that is dependant upon community, and the direct giving of one individual to another. Film acting relies primarily on realism, while for participants in a theatre camp, there are as many styles of creation available to them as there are to a painter. Surrealism, dada, clown, stage combat, Brechtian theatre, Shakespearian, choral speaking, improvisation theatre, collective creation, Greek theatre, musical theatre, physical theatre, Japanese theatre styles and Stanislavsky’s techniques – in our theatre programs we have explored all of these, and more.

Chatting with our program directors on the final day of a session is the very best way of seeing the importance of drama camps. ‘I thought he would never have the courage to tackle that role – but just look what he achieved!’;  ’She went from talking to nobody, to really understanding how to work in a group’; ‘Playing this character was very cathartic for him, because of all the changes he is facing in his life’; ‘The fact that they did this, all of them together, really showed them what a team can achieve’. The sense of pride is always palpable in our staff on the last day of each session, and it’s not themselves they are proud of (although they should be!) – it is always their campers.