For many young actors, their first exposure to the performing arts came in a junior high or high school drama class. Some were lucky and got exposed quite early, getting bit by the drama bug even before adolescence.
The Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum offers one such opportunity for kids ages 8 through 14. The museum will host a Broadway Bootcamp event available July 25 through 29. Discovery Museum Program Assistant Carrie Hiramatsu, who graduated Righetti High School in June, will teach the camp this year.
Hiramatsu knows well how influential a drama camp at the Discovery Museum can be—she attended one as a youngster herself about a decade ago. She has been heavily involved in the theater in one way or another ever since, and produced and directed productions at Righetti with her friend and collaborator Zoi Urban, who is a volunteer camp teacher for the Broadway Bootcamp as well.
The pair will use their combined experience to bring the kids at the Discovery Museum camp a program that exposes them to the full scope of the theater world, Hiramatsu said.
“We’re also very involved in choir and dance, all aspects of theater, so we really wanted to create a well-rounded theater camp where they could have a day where they learn improv, music, dance, stage skills, and acting,” Hiramatsu said. “And on top of it all, since we’re very involved in the production side of theater, they will also be working with us to create their own personal skit, which they will stage for family and friends at the end of the week.”
Hiramatsu and Urban said they want to give the kids a well-rounded experience so that they are familiar with many different aspects of the theater, and will hopefully find something that excites their interests.
The camp also nets quite a range of age groups, from 8-year-olds all the way to younger teens. This is a good thing, the duo said, as it gets younger kids inspired by older peers and gives the older kids the chance to build some leadership skills, just like Hiramatsu and Urban did while involved in various drama programs.
“We learned a lot from being in charge of the younger ones and kids who weren’t really in our grades,” Hiramatsu said. “I think it could provide them with an opportunity they might not get working on a school production just with kids in their grade.”
The camp is also a chance for youngsters to get experience using a very important skill that can serve them in most areas of the workforce, which is collaboration.
In the age of technology, it’s important for kids to connect with each other and work together and build those social skills early. The Broadway Bootcamp doesn’t just teach practical collaboration, but also how to work together in a creative environment.
“You really get to learn and develop a mutual respect for each other and you learn how to collaborate with someone that’s younger than you; not everyone you work with when you are older will be the same age as you,” Urban said. “You have to learn with people from different age groups, so it’s really effective and you learn listening skills.”
Broadway Boot Camp falls into the Discovery Museum’s mission in the way it gets kids learning while having fun. Even if the youngsters don’t end up in a career or college path in the theater, like Hiramatsu, they are still learning valuable skills along with all the fun they’re having.
There are also a couple more camps available, including a cooking camp from Aug. 1 through 5 and an Art Around the World Camp from Aug. 8 through 12. A robotics camp is already sold out, explained the museum’s program director Amy Blasco, who said the camps represent the Discovery Museum’s mission to make education fun and creative.
“We try to keep it really well rounded,” Blasco said. “At the museum we’re really into the whole STEAM movement, which comes from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, but we don’t want to forget the ‘A,’ because the arts are really important.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne is not sure he’s as well rounded as some of the kids from the Discovery Museum. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 14-21, 2016.