OnStage! (8-14 Years)  

​What to Expect

Do you need some more drama in your life? Then check out OnStage Theatre Camp! During every two-week camp session, children participate in all aspects of a musical production. Students not only act in the production, but develop true ownership by designing the lighting and sound, building the sets and props, and creating their own costumes.

Skills Developed
In addition to putting on the show, campers take a series of master classes every day, including stage combat, stage make-up application, lighting and set design, theatrical terminology and etiquette, memorization and auditioning techniques, playwriting, and theater history. Dependent upon each play, academic lessons in various subjects take place daily. From research about an earlier time period to author studies, we encourage campers to learn all they can.

Daily Activities
Each day begins with a musical theater movement/dance class and campers are taught specific dance steps that are common in musical theater auditions. They then move on to either scene rehearsal, prop design, set design, or music rehearsal. After lunch, students participate in that day's master class. Next come group rehearsals during which the large company numbers are choreographed and blocked. The day concludes with a variety of theatrical games designed to improve listening, speaking, and concentration skills.

Start a Portfolio
While the campers spend much of their day in Elmwood Franklin's state-of-the-art Johnston Theatre, we take every opportunity to venture outside for games, free time, and to take pictures in costume. Students are also given a professional 8x10 headshot taken by a professional photographer for use in future auditions. 

OnStage Director
Christine Cooke-MacVittie (EFS Drama Director & Teacher)

Who is it for?
Children ages 8 to 14

When does it run?
Three two-week blocks, for a total of six weeks. Unfortunately, individual weeks are not available.
Camp runs 9am-4pm, Monday through Friday. (See registration form for extended camp hours available).

Cost
$1000 for a two-week session, includes all activities and professional headshot.
(Digital and 8 x12 print)

Payment plans available.
Session 1 is $980 because camp is closed Friday, July 5.

Session One
Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon
​June 28-July 9
(No camp on July 5th)
The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon is a madcap romp through the collected stories of the Brothers Grimm.  Five warring narrators attempt to combine all 209 fairy tales into one impossibly complicated story-line in a hilarious theatrical event. Using audience participation, cross-casting, quick costume changes, and some creative re-imagining of the stories, the narrators utilize the other actors to tell as many fairy tales as possible. Famous stories such as Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, The Frog Prince, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood are told alongside bizarre, obscure tales like Lean Lisa, The Girl Without Hands, and Straw, Coal, and Bean, all culminating in a frenetic single-performer Cinderella in which one unfortunate actor is corralled into performing all of the roles in a mind and gender-bending dash to the finish line.  

Session Two 
Empowered: How One Girl Scout Nearly Destroyed the World's Economy 
July 12 - July 23 
Amaryllis is determined to win her Girl Scout troop's cookie-selling contest, but she'll need more than charm to win first prize (a unicorn!) and avoid last place (which means getting kicked out of the troop!). So when sales droop, she naturally turns to the financial sector for advice. Soon she's faking a terminal illness, franchising her methods, and contracting with a payday lender to offer 30-year loans for cookies. A hysterical homage to Glengarry Glen Ross and send-up of the wild excesses of the financial crisis.

Session Three
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Middle School 
July 26 - August 6
​Welcome to middle school! What's it all about? Helpful narrators are here to answer your questions. Well, some are - but while they are debunking locker-stuffing myths and explaining when the bell rings, others are busy investigating cafeteria workers who dress like pirates and other odd secrets. While some of the new middle-schoolers want to know where the bathroom is and what the deal is with P.E., others are mostly concerned with grizzly bear attacks. And does anybody understand what the principal is shouting about under that weird hair during announcements? All will be revealed with plenty of comedy along the way in Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Middle School (but were too busy being stuffed in a locker to ask).