Campers Learn Theatre & More at Starlight

When children and youth spend summer days at Starlight Theatre camps, they have fun, build friendships, learn performance and life skills, and, we hope, make memories for a lifetime. So, if your young ones didn’t get a chance to experience camp at Starlight this summer, set a reminder to save a spot in 2018!

Starlight’s Education Department hosts two sessions of Act Like An Animal Camp (for children who have completed grades kindergarten through 4) and one session of Camp Take-A-Bow (for youth who have completed grades 5 through 8) each summer. The two-week camps provide plenty of opportunity for campers to explore the world of musical theatre, hone their talents and build new skills.

Since 2006, Starlight has partnered with the Kansas City Zoo in offering the popular Act Like An Animal Camp. During one-half of each camp day, children are immersed in the theatre arts and build skills in acting, movement and music. The other half of the day is spent at the zoo, learning about and interacting with animals, touring, creating crafts and playing games. Each camp session concludes with campers performing an original musical and displaying their artwork for family and friends.

“My hope is that all of our campers enjoy exploring the world of musical theatre,” said Amy Reinert-Price, Starlight’s director of education, “but Act Like An Animal Camp is also much more. It’s about forming new friendships – with people and nature – and stepping out of your comfort zone to try new things together.”

At Camp Take-a-Bow, offered at Starlight since 2013, campers spend two weeks gaining in-depth, hands-on experience in creating and staging a musical theatre production. They work on acting, singing and dancing and also build technical theatre skills by designing and constructing sets, props and costumes for a final musical performance for family and friends.

“I’m always inspired by how children who start out as strangers come together to put on a musical theatre production,” Reinert-Price said. “In the process, they form new friendships, take risks and try unfamiliar things, learn to work together respectfully to accomplish goals, and learn to embrace a variety of individual talents.”

Starlight camps offer youth a chance to explore the world of theatre in a safe, low-pressure environment. Camp sizes are limited to allow Starlight staff and professional teaching artists to provide individual attention and instruction.

“For a camper to accomplish their ultimate goal, they must collaborate in ways that require each person to be vulnerable yet confident at the same time,” Reinert-Price added. “They have to extend a great deal of trust to others while being trustworthy themselves. They leave, hopefully, inspired to be the best version of themselves.”

Want to try out a camp or educational program at Starlight for your kids? Next up is Frosty Fun Days over winter break, Spring Break Camp in March, and, of course Act Like An Animal Camp and Camp Take-a-Bow next summer. Learn more and watch for online registration to open at www.kcstarlight.com/education.