Monday Morning Musings

The summer drama camp for young players starts today at the Winnsboro Center for the Arts, so I will be incredibly busy for the next two weeks with the camp and for the show we will do at the end of the camp.But I'm not complaining, mind you. It's just an excuse to play for two weeks, and we will have a lot of fun.

I started doing this camp for kids about six or seven years ago, and we have had one every year since. It is always so much fun to work with young people and encourage them to explore their creativity. The purpose of the camp is to help kids be comfortable on stage and teach them elements of acting, staging, costumes, make up and more. I have worked with so many kids over the years, I have lost count of how many, but quite a few have stayed involved in productions at the center.

One young teen who started in the camp five years ago just sent me a message on Facebook, thanking me for helping him find his stage voice. I remember how hesitant he was to speak up when delivering lines, and now he is quite an accomplished actor, starring in his school's UIL one-act play last year.

This year I will be working with two young women, who both started with me as Young Players when they were in elementary school. One just finished her second year as a theatre major at Washington University in St. Louis, and the other just graduated from high school and will be going on to college to minor in theatrre. They will bring a new level of expertise to the camp, and I am so thrilled to be working with them.

The camp is very time intensive, both during the actual camp hours and preparing for the show in the evenings, so I will not have time for blogging. Thank goodness I can always borrow from my friends, Slim Randles and Tracy Farr, so I will be letting them entertain you most of the time for the next two weeks. Although I may blog from the camp if I have time, so stay tuned.