Summer Camp: Part Deux

The Summer camps are officially over, and let me tell you, the pre-teen camp, with seventeen kids ages eight through twelve, was a whole different animal. If the Teen camp was roadrunner, starting off at an amiable pace and picking up speed every day, peaking with an explosive performance on Friday, the kids camp was a crazed wolverine fresh out of the cage, with way more energy than seems natural to most interns, like yours truly. That said, it was a very likeable crazed wolverine.



The teen summer camp's lunch time supervision( if you could call it that), consisted of chilling in the park, talking about stuff like favorite movies and shows. PRE-teen summer camp lunchtimes were something like this:

ME: "Alright, everybody, stay on that side of the counter and I'll hand you your lunch."
KIDS: "I want to get it myself!"
ME: "No, I'll hand it to you. Okay, who has the green cooler."
KIDS: "Mine! That's mine!" "Look, I can jump over the counter!"
ME: "No, don't do thattt.... Okaaaay. Just, get back on the other side."

Later, as I'm doing one of my head counts, something I did once about every 2 minutes.

KIDS: "Hey, can I go over there?"\

ME : "No, you have to stay in the park."
KIDS: "Johnny's over there."
ME: "What?! Johnny, get back here!"
KIDS: "When are the other kids gonna get back from IN'n'Out?"
ME: "When Vanessa brings them back."
KIDS: "I wanna get In'n'Out." "I have to go to the bathroom!"

Yes, the constant energy of the campers never ceased to impress me. One of the most interesting tasks presented itself in the form of helping the kids get cleaned up after they finished painting their own set; trying to clean their hands off outside with a garden hose and a spay nozel. One girl approached me, rubbing her cup of blue paint all over her hands and up her arms like it was soap.

"Hi. I kept on putting paint on me, that way it won't dry and it comes off easier."
".... I don't think it works like that."

But despite all the crazy, often high-stress level situations the campers got into, it was a lot of fun helping the Actors' Gang teachers with the camp. And it was never boring. My favorite part of the week came when I got to assist our Poduction Coordinator, Francois Pierre, as he taught the kids about stage lighting. With every new design he threw on the wall with a gobo'd spotlight, with every new color or effect he created with different gels, the kids would go crazy.

"WHOA!!! DO THAT AGAIN!"
"NEAT! That was SO Cool!"

And it really was cool. The kids loved the camp, and I could tell when I watched their performance on Friday, along with all their parents and some grandparents, that they had really gotten a lot out of it.