Student Blog: How I'm Staying Involved with Theatre Over the Summer

Happy summer! While I'm excited to not have any academic stress on me for the next few months, I definitely still want to be involved in theater. I know that it can be hard to find ways to be involved over the summer, especially during a pandemic, so I'm going to share how I've found ways to be involved and hopefully give some inspiration to others.

One very exciting thing I am beginning to work on is a play with the Virtual Theatre Collaboration. VTC is an online artists' collective that produces work by marginalized groups. They began creating shows in March 2020 and I am very excited to work with them this summer. While there is not much information currently public about their summer season, I am excited to be given the chance to try out something different when it comes to the kind of work I've done before. They are still accepting applications for both the production team and casts for the summer and that information is available on their website. One of the reasons that I really wanted to work with them is because this is a group made up of young people who are extremely passionate about what they do. I think that the work that comes out of a non-educational environment is very different than what comes out of an education environment and I'm excited to see the difference.

Also, I am assisting with a local theater camp. I think that this is a way for people to get involved with theater and learn about themselves and others. Personally, I love teaching and it is something that I am very passionate about so this is an exciting position for me. I think that taking the opportunity to teach children at camps is really helpful for anyone because you learn so many new skills that you would not learn working with only other adults. It is hard to find internships right now because of the pandemic and with most theaters being closed, but some summer camps are opening, depending on local/state guidelines.

I wanted to share the things that I am doing this summer because I know how hard it is to feel involved during a pandemic. I feel like a lot of time for a lot of opportunities has passed me by because of the pandemic so, I'm trying to make up for the lost time. Once the school year begins again, I know we'll all be back to working on school productions and homework, but I think having some sort of tether to this community during the summer is helpful. I've discovered that once I start working on theater productions and I feel that magic and joy, I don't want to stop, which leads me to seek out new opportunities. I hope that everyone reading this has an exciting and fun summer filled with activities!