by Elana Kennedy, Rosh Drama This summer has been an amazing one for our Drama program! From the Hebrew musicals to our daily drama activity offerings, campers all across camp have enjoyed an especially exciting, creative summer.
We set out to raise the bar for our musicals this summer, and week after week camp has been reminded of the remarkable things our incredibly talented campers are capable of. Flying umbrellas, a Yellow Brick Road down the middle of the Beit Am, the brand new musical “Matilda!”, and an all-camp ABBA dance party are only a few highlights from this summer’s season so far. And this Thursday, Machon and Tikvah will close out the year with what promises to be an awesome, innovative production of Pippin!
This summer the Drama staff has continued the development of a curriculum that builds on itself over the years, so that a camper who chooses Drama several summers in a row will learn new skills that come together in the writing and performing the Nivonim English Play. Garinim began with the ten foundational rules of improv, returning home with a keepsake booklet complete with examples of how to use each rule to create an exciting improv scene.
While Solelim delved into more advanced improv and longer scenes, the Halutzim began their work on character building. Each camper has created his or her own character from scratch, and worked on developing a specific backstory, personality, and set of relationships for that original character.
The culmination of this progression, the Nivonim English Play, was another highlight of our summer season. A small group of Nivonim campers spent two intense weeks creating an original physical theatre piece, grounded in both Jewish text study and a high-level theatrical devising process. The final product, To Kill a She-Goat, was both an enjoyable experience for its audiences, and a powerful exploration of what “good” truly means.
Exciting new visions for our musicals, new theatre skills throughout the eidot, and an original English play have been the centerpieces of Summer 2017 in Drama, and mark an exciting shift toward even brighter possibilities in the future. For now, though, we can’t wait to see Pippin come together and close out the season this week!
