July 16, 2003
Playhouse offers performing arts camp for kids
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
A bevy of pirates are in training this summer at the Summer Performing Arts Camp.
The four-week camp offered by the Traverse City Children's Theater will conclude later this month with the presentation of "Treasure Island," a musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate tale. For six hours a day at the Old Town Playhouse, the 35 students are learning to sing, dance, act, and make sets, props and scenes - all the basics of participating in a stage production.
The students, who range in age from 6-16, spend the morning on general topics and the afternoon in specific rehearsals for Treasure Island. Morning sessions include the basics of musical theater, Shakespeare, tongue twisters as vocal warm ups and improvisational games. Guest speakers from the community round out the program, including mime Tom Johnson and aspiring screenwriter Katie Tibaldi.
Going to 'theater school' and giving up a chunk of their sunny, summer days has not been a problem for participants.
"I just think acting is really fun and I enjoy all the improv games we play here," said Tommy Booth, 13, a veteran actor from the Traverse Bay Community School. "I've been doing acting since the fourth grade at school."
Christina Karakos, 8, has enjoyed learning her dancing and singing pieces for the play.
"I like the dancing, I've never done it before," said Karakos, who will be a third-grade student at Eastern Elementary School. "It is sort of easy."
Traverse City Children's Theater director Luis Araquistain leads the rigorous, fast-paced days. Araquistain, who is also directing the play, is assisted in the camp by Kat Brown as choreographer and dance instructor and Matt Archibald as music director.
"It is very, very intensive training and they seem to be having a good time," Araquistain said. "Everybody's getting a chance to do it all."
"It is a lot of fun, watching the kids," he noted.
An elementary music teacher in the Kingsley Area School system, Archibald said the camp's intensive format is a great way for the students to learn.
"I like intense schedules, it's easier to keep their attention, too," he said. "A lot of the kids have had some singing experience because they are very good."
Michelle Brown is cast in one of the larger roles and said combining all aspects of musical theater can be challenging, but also a lot of fun.
"It's kind of hard to do all of the singing and dancing and acting at the same time," noted Michelle Brown, cast as Jamie in the play. "During acting class, you don't just sit there and Luis tells you the elements of acting, you learn through games."
Araquistain said the campers are encouraged to be mutually supporting of everyone's efforts and skills. This teamwork is key to the success of the play, he noted.
"We encourage the kids a great deal to support each other and they've really taken it to heart," he said. "They realize that the production is a group effort and they must recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each other."
The intensive summer camp idea is new this year and Araquistain noted that the concept was so popular all spaces filled eight weeks before it opened. To accommodate the leftover interest, he added a mini-summer camp that will begin July 28. This two-week, ten-session program will run from Monday through Friday and concludes with a production of "Stone Soup," starring the campers.
Treasure Island will be presented at the Old Town Playhouse on Friday, July 25, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, July 26, at 3 and 7 p.m. Admission is $3 for children and $5 for adults. For more information on the play, or on the Mini Summer Performing Arts Camp that begins July 28, call the theater at 947-2210.