Part of our mandate at Centauri Arts Camp is to give all campers an equal opportunity to grow and shine within an atmosphere that emphasizes a spirit of collaboration rather than competition. We want all our campers to have a positive and creative time at camp, regardless of whether they have any previous experience in the arts. One department that sometimes faces challenges because of this mandate is Theatre. We certainly don’t want to stage productions where there are a small number of central roles, and all other actors spend most of their program time standing around!
We have found many exciting and creative solutions to this over the years, one of which is to offer our theatre campers the chance to participate in devised theatre projects. These are programs where campers take workshops in acting skills, then work together to put those skills to use as they build a show of their own. Often this involves creating their own characters, exploring them deeply, then placing those characters in situations of conflict with others, in order to create drama. This is a terrific way for young actors to learn! Devised theatre projects often also involve a wide variety of skills: different theatrical styles are explored, then intertwined – mask, mime, choral work, soundscapes, melodrama, surrealism, movement, clown and more. In devising their own piece of theatre, young actors discover essentials about performance that they can apply to all future work: how to create and maintain tension as performers, how to adapt to differing performance spaces, how to articulate ideas, inspire others, then compromise where necessary. Productions are built not through writing exercises, but hands-on acting workshops in improvisation, character, scene work and more.
In Session Three this summer, older campers have the opportunity to participate in one such devised theatre piece in, ‘The Looking Glass: A Theatre Project’. Like other such projects, all the actors begin with is a theme or idea, and they take it from there! In this program, we will begin by asking: what happens when we look in the mirror? Perhaps the group will interpret this realistically, creating theatre that explores self-image and the reality of who people really are, deep down. Perhaps they will be like Alice and see a completely different world in the mirror – one that overturns logic and plunges the audience into a world of dreams.
If you hope to further develop your acting skills this summer while being part of a thrilling creative experience, join us for The Looking Glass Project in Session 3, and discover more about yourself as a performer while working with other actors to create an exciting and original performance piece.
For more information on our Acting and Theatre Camps, click here
https://www.centauriartscamp.com/summer-camps/acting-camp-programs.htm