Summer Camp Part 1

Hi again. It's Alex, here at the Actors' Gang, and as of today we are halfway into our first week of Summer Camp. This week is strictly teens, while two weeks from now we have another theatre camp for pre-teens.

I got here on monday at 9 a.m, quite a switch from working mostly nights for the past couple weeks on 1984. After barely seeing Vanessa for three weeks, it was great to see her again. She's in charge/ the mastermind behind the two Summer Camps. Plus, I was glad to be working at the theatre in Culver City again.

Vj and Justin are teaching the morning sessions and I got the chance to sit in on a little bit of that. Right away the teens got acquainted with the Commedia Del Arte characters that the Gang trains with every Sunday in workshop. It was a welcome reminder to me too, having already forgotten a lot of what I'd learned about Commedia after my USC finals this spring. After that the campers selected a character they were going to portray over the course of the week (Harlequino, Columbina, Brighella... etc.), they went on to pick what they wanted for costumes and makeup.

Watching the camp, and seeing the campers really start to grow as actors has been great, and it's definitely been a learning experience for me, too. The whole thing's giving me the acting bug again.

I take my lunch break at the same time as the campers, too, and have found out they're all really cool kids. Topics of discussion range from favorite movies to what shows they've done to what they're learning to which famous celebrities we've randomly seen around the city. Plus, I've been putting a good word in for USC (despite my afformentioned History of World Theatre amnesia, it's an amazing school). Gotta show them the light before the Bruins here get to 'em first.