Teens Discover Haddonfield Plays & Players

Combining the love of some teens for the theater and the shortage of trained actors to fill roles of adolescents in “grown up” plays, Haddonfield Plays & Players community theater is home-growing talent.

For several years, the theater group has run successful StageKidz and Stage Teenies summer camp programs for children as young as 4. Last summer’s program drew 75 kids.

Now they’re branching out, putting a call out for 14- to 18-year-olds. So far 18 have enrolled in the 20-week course. Organizers of the program, Melissa Tepperman and Josh Bessinger, say they could expand the class by a few more but only for another week or so. The cost of the program is $800, said Tepperman.

At the second class session last week, 15 participants greeted each other with the enthusiasm of old friends who have survived more than a few rounds of auditions and first-night jitters. Most are from Haddonfield, so a few walked or biked to the playhouse off Upland Way. Others rode bikes and class members from Collingswood, Cherry Hill and Moorestown were dropped off by parents or older siblings. A few missed the class because of prior family or sports commitments.

After brief re-introductions to the instructors and each other, they moved from the theater’s rehearsal room to the stage, vacated just moments before by younger children rehearsing a production of The Jungle Book, one of three shows that feature young actors that will be performed this season.

No show has been selected for the New Stage group, said Tepperman. They’ll wait to see the strengths of those in the program and will hold auditions on Oct. 22. 

But, she said, it will be a show, not just a review showcasing talents of individual performers. It will run the last weekend in March. 

“Some of these kids have grown up with us,” said Tepperman, a Haddon Township resident who teaches performing arts at Camden County Technical School in Pennsauken and directs shows at her high school alma mater Rancocas Valley Regional High School. Her most recent onstage role was in at the Ritz Theatre in Oaklyn.

As she pointed out teens arriving for the Saturday afternoon class, she remembered roles many have filled over the years, roles now being filled by younger theater campers.

Tepperman and Bessinger, who lives in Burlington Township and is working on a master's degree in elementary education, have worked together on camp programs since 2007. 

Tepperman said they will select a show, a musical, that wouldn’t normally be done by a high school, perhaps something like Pippin. “There are only so many times these kids can do a role in Willie Wonka,” she said. Four shows are under consideration.

She acknowledged that she was a bit concerned when the initial applications included only two boys, which would severely limit show selection. By last weekend, five boys were participating.

In addition to performing in actors’ spots that they will win by auditioning, members in the camp also will act as tech crew for the production.

Last Saturday, each of the participants showed up with a music CD, to which they would sing. No props, no special effects, no choreography. Just a teenager on a bare stage, synchronizing a song to music that in some cases was a bit too loud for the singer’s voice. 

Patrick O’Malley, who has been active in Plays & Players for three years and squeezes it into classwork at and practices with the freshman soccer team, took on the role of Charlie Brown (You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown), struggling to control a kite. His hands twisted on an imaginary roll of string as he moved left to right, right to left, on the stage.

“Your performance begins the moment you walk onto the stage,” Bessinger said.

“Watch your breath control,” added Tepperman. “Never break up a word. The breaths go between phrases.”

The next work session for the actors involves selecting and presenting a monologue.

Bessinger said expanding the theater’s training program to teens was a natural step. “We were just not ready to let you kids go,” he said to them during introductions.

More information about the theater camp, for all age groups, and other activities of Haddonfield Plays & Players is available online at haddonfieldplayers.com.