Civic Announces Summer Acting Sessions for Pre-K through Grade 12

Civic Theatre of Allentown will again offer two summer camp sessions for students ages Pre-K through grade 12. The two 2-week sessions are scheduled for July 8-19 and July 22-August 2. Breaking from tradition, the Civic program will offer both full and half day options for most of its classes, as well as a new twist on the program for high school students.

Originally launched in the 1950s, Civic Theatre School is the longest continually operated program of its kind in the Lehigh Valley. The summer sessions, which began more than a decade ago as an out-growth of its regular dual semester program, have become popular with parents and students who sought ways to extend their experience into the summer months.

As times have changed, however, so have the needs of the Lehigh Valley families who have enrolled their children in programs at Civic and other cultural arts camps.

"Parents have started to ask us for a full-day option. There are still, however, students who enjoy the flexibility of coming for only part of the day," says JoAnn Basist, board liaison and coordinator of Civic Theatre School programs. "Certainly this indicates that arts education programs are not 'one size fits all'. Today people expect options. So when we decided to reinvent our Summer Acting Session, we were very conscious of how students spend their summer breaks and tried to create a new program that would equally meet their expectations on quality and affordability."

The revised Civic Theatre Summer School program still provides a morning-based, half-day theatre arts program for grades Pre-K through 12, but also offers a second half-day option where students can choose to spend the afternoon exploring additional aspects of the theatre.

Students in grades three through eight may elect to enroll in Civic Theatre School's new afternoon specialty classes - gaining the opportunity to explore a wide range of creative areas in the theatre arts taught by qualified specialists from their fields. Students will explore topics that may include voice and speech, stage combat, costume design, stage make-up, puppetry and more.

"It's a great opportunity for students to dig deeper into the process of creating theatre and to understand everything that is involved in producing a theatrical show," says Basist.

Civic also will offer a new Devised Theatre program for grades 9-12 in Session 2. Students will study this exciting and inspiring form of theatre through readings, exercises, and discussions. Putting what they are learning into practice, the students will collaboratively create and produce an original piece of theatre.

The new high school class will be taught by Civic's new teaching artist, Amanda Mitchell, who has experience with devised theatre programming through her work in the outreach program at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC and her studies at Trinity University in Dublin, Ireland.

"No matter how the program is enhanced or changed, there are certain things that are universal in our programming," says Basist. "All of our programs are designed to give students opportunities to explore their creativity, to learn how to work collaboratively and to gain critical-thinking skills. These students also become confident and poised in the process. I can't imagine a better way to develop these essential life skills than doing it with friends and mentors in the creative world of the theatre."

Pre-K/Kindergarten students will participate in a very basic acting class, and will learn about creative expression, taking direction, and imaginary exploration of characters.

Grades 1 and 2 focuses on learning more about acting and movement, story dramatization, speaking and listening skills, creative performance games, character exploration, vocal development, pantomime, and theatre games.

Grades 3-8 students also learn about acting and movement, but also concentrate on improvisation skills, character work, scene work, staging and directing, scene work, memorization, scene blocking, and audition skills.

Grades 9-12 focuses more on character development and scene work. They are introduced to the Stanislavski method for actors.

Not only do Civic Theatre School kids learn acting skills from some of the area's most skilled theatre professionals, but they will also learn to be creative, tolerant, and enhance their collaborative-working and critical thinking ski

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