Monday, August 28, 2017

The Musical Theater Camp Keeps Band Kids Busy All Summer

By Pamela Allen


With so much pressure being put on young people in this day and age, it seems a shame that many parents believe they have to push their kids even further in order to assure their success in life. Parents will frequently get their children into a specialized program so they can master skills that are not commonly held in the general population. Summer programs such as musical theater camp is exactly such a place.

These camps are a starting ground for young people who feel drawn to explore the more creative side of their nature. They may want to learn a new talent, or continue to receive a detailed instruction on how to fully master an instrument that they had started picking on during their last summer visit. A musician never ceases to be a student.

In the 50s and 60s young people bemoaned these camps and felt abandoned by their parents, many of whom would take vacations out of the country while their kids were gone. However, it turned out that these kids benefited a great deal by being artsy campers every summer. As those students were approaching adulthood, they found themselves availed to opportunities in Hollywood that they had not anticipated.

These camps embrace an attitude that all students have hidden talents which they work to bring to the surface in their lives. Fear is the primary force which prevents most people from stepping up to embrace a role of authority, or perform in front of their peers. A little encouragement and confidence building goes a long way to bring these kids out of their shell.

Counselors twenty or thirty years ago were known to be much harder on the young people under their tutelage. These days kids at camps can be educated in a variety of entertainment-related specialties, sometimes by the celebrities they listen to on their own radio every day. There are very talented people in the world who are quite willing to be a leader in their community.

When the kids get to pick their item of interest for the summer, it helps to keep them fully engaged in what they are doing. When they attend camps every summer, sometimes they will actually learn to play a different instrument each and every year. Others might want to learn to act, belly-dance, or formulate some sort of interpretive routine.

It might seem mean to push young people so hard toward success, but then again, maybe it is not as bad as some of us think. Kids who have taken advantage of these camps, whether they were forced to or went voluntarily, discovered that the things they learned during that time of their lives could not be measured. It opened doors for them to get into places like Broadway and Hollywood.

Years ago the campers would get sick of endless musical drills, singing drills, and other monotonous activities. Now they belt out the tunes of their favorite rock stars, learn to write a play, or have the opportunity to master a rare instrument no one has ever heard of. These kids really do not think they are being mistreated, but rather are gifted with open doors for the future.




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