Students of All Ages Prepare For Theater Camp's Production of "Sleeping Beauty and the Z's"

Huntley High School’s Theater Camp is not your typical summer camp.

It’s an opportunity for kids who love theater to perform.

“This isn’t about giving students a Broadway resume,” said Tom George, who produces the play. He is a speech team coach at the high school. “It’s about giving these kids an opportunity.” Students who participate in the camp will reap the benefits of the opportunity when they reach high school, George said.

Directed by high school guidance counselor Karen Miller and social studies teacher Steve Sturm, the summer camp offers students the chance to get involved in theater at a young age and work alongside others with a variety of acting abilities.

Practice for Huntley High School’s sixth summer theater camp started Monday, June 20, as local fifth- through 12^th-graders signed up for an experience that will benefit not only students involved, but also Huntley’s speech and theater program throughout the 2011-12 school year.

This summer’s performances of Sleeping Beauty and the Z’s on the weekend of July 14-16 will include two different casts over four shows. Tickets will cost $5 for all ages, a lower price than usual in the hopes that more people will attend the performances that aim to showcase the students participating and raise fund for the coming school year.

“We want this to be a community event,” said George.

The cost to participate in the camp is $175 which includes five tickets, a cast T-shirt, and fantastic instruction by the directors, who both are involved in coaching theater and speech at Huntley. One of Miller’s favorite aspects of helping with the summer play is working with students who have varying degrees of experience.

“It’s fun to see different types of expertise that is out there and watch how they learn,” she said.

According to George, there are two criteria the summer play must meet: It must have a cast big enough for the camp, and it must appeal to a children’s audience. The camp primarily consists of District 158 students, but there are a few from other districts as well.

Compared to the plays put on during the school year, the summer theater camp has a more relaxed environment.

“It’s a friendly atmosphere,” 16-year-old Brian Goldfarb said. “There’s no sense of competition.”

Goldfarb, a junior at Huntley High School, grew inspired to act in the fifth grade when he was an extra in the HHS production of Beauty and the Beast. Since then, he has been in a number of plays and musicals; this is the fifth time Goldfarb has participated in the camp.

“I like performing different parts and showing my creative side,” he said.

Goldfarb aspires to be a doctor in the future, but still plans to remain involved with theater. For other students in the camp, acting is a hobby that will stick with them for the rest of their lives.

Abby Gleason, also a 16-year-old HHS junior, has done theater since seventh grade — her first love was singing, but after performing in the musical Aladdin, she was opened up to theater and how much she enjoyed acting. Gleason would like to get a master’s degree in musical theater and hopes to teach theater.

“It’s time-consuming but it’s worth it,” she said. “You get lifelong friendships and skills out of it.”

Gleason and Goldfarb particularly enjoy the summer theater camp, because it is a change of pace from the plays put on during the school year; there is no high school drama and no sense of competition.

“It gives everybody an opportunity to get roles they wouldn’t get throughout the school years,” she said.