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Acting Up and Loving It!

On Friday, while watching Natalie sashay across our city center's stage to prepare for her scene, I was reminded just how lucky we are to live in a community that values and supports the arts. This past week Natalie attended drama camp through Shrewsbury's Parks and Recreation Department.  The fee for the five day camp was minimal, but the skills and confidence she gained in class were priceless. Under the direction of our high school's drama teacher, Colleen Malone, Natalie and 30+ girls, many with little to no theater experience, learned about improvisation, pantomime, costume and set design and more. Malone not only directed, she inspired and drew out each girl's creativity in a way that felt safe and fun.

Natalie returned home from her first day and announced, "Drama camp is AMAZING!"  Before she was completely inside, she was showing me her "warm up" exercises.  She was excited to demonstrate her developing mime-walking skill and told me all about the puppet she made at camp. Within minutes, her enthusiasm over puppets inspired her to set up a show in our living room.  I sat down and listened, but couldn't help but take notes.
Once upon a time there was a small, gray tiger named Lulu.  She lives on a small iceberg called Pola.  She's a curious tiger.  She used to live on a ship, but she got thrown out by the pirates.  They threw her out of the ship because she always had hair balls.  She floated on a piece of the ship until one day she saw a floating iceberg.

"Hmmm...what's that doing here?" she said.

She took a lick.

"Brrr!  That's cold."

One day she slept on the iceberg.  The iceberg moved and broke into pieces and she jumped off it onto land.

"Oh no!"

The iceberg broke.  She tried to fix it.  She was so upset.

"What am I going to do now?"

She licked one piece of the iceberg then she sent her Grandma a letter telling her she needed carrot seeds to grow food.  She received one carrot and a piece of carrot pie.

"Yummy, yummy," said Lulu.

She wanted to eat the pie, but then she remembered -- veggies first!  She learned that on the pirate ship.  She licked all the crumbs and then ate all the pie.
 Each day her joy for drama camp only grew as she showed off her "tongue exercises" and brought home colorful masks and told me all about her new "best friends" at camp.  I was impressed with her ability to recall and perform the difficult twisters like, "Big black bugs bleed blue black blood, but baby black bugs bleed blue."  By the third day, I was sharing Natalie's enthusiasm for class with her teacher and inquiring about future camps.  Malone appreciated the positive feedback and then shared, "Your daughter is among the youngest in the group, but she is absolutely fearless.  After one demonstration she's already telling me, I've got this."

"Yeah, let's just hope she uses her powers for good!" I responded.

To learn more about the Shrewsbury Summer Drama Camp, click here to like them on Facebook. Labels: camp, drama, Natalie, theater


