A jungle adventure: Young actors get a taste of what it's like to perform on stage in front of an audience
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on August 10, 2017 8:52 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
The STARS II campers practice a dance to "We're On a Jungle Adventure" at StageStruck. This year's play is "Going Bananas: A Safari Adventure."
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Emma Lewis, 10, as Timon and Frank Mandevlle, 8, as Puma sing "Hakuna Matata" from Disney's "The Lion King" during the STARS II camp at StageStruck.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Ashlee Boyd rehearses a number for StageStruck's STARS II camp. She is portraying a monkey in the jungle of Kenya, Africa.
Lions, zebras and lemurs dance around the stage. But they're not real animals -- they are young children going on an African safari.
"Going Bananas: A Safari Adventure" was the theme of this year's STARS camp at StageStruck for rising kindergartners through fifth graders.
Through the magic of the theater, the young children traveled from a back yard in Goldsboro to Kenya, Africa. Using a parachute, they did a little dance and all of a sudden, they were in Africa.
While on safari, they are searching for Bobo, a mischievous little monkey, one of the cast members from the camp, who plays hide and seek with the others.
"We used songs from different shows, like 'The Lion King' and 'Jungle Book,'" said director Marie Ashley.
She actually wrote the script and chose the 10 songs for the camp. One is an original song that her husband, Dr. Carl Ashley, write just for the camp called "We're on a Jungle Adventure" to the tune of "On Top of Old Smoky."
Each year, the STARS camp has a different theme, so children returning experience something new.
Mrs. Ashley sees the children change over the two-week camp.
"One little girl, Sara, is probably the quietest one in our entire camp," she said. "You'd never even know she was there. I gave her the loudest line, unbeknownst to me. I know through this experience, she will come out of her shell."
The campers also learn that everyone is important in a show, not just the stars.
"As I explain how important their line is in the story, they start to own it," Mrs. Ashley said. "There could be only one Bobo in the show and many wanted it. But I tell them, 'I have a part for you.' Just because they didn't get one part doesn't mean they don't get another. Everybody is important, even if they just have one line."
And there's even a little mentoring going on during the camp.
Mrs. Ashley said the younger children really do watch the older ones.
"If they know that they're being looked up to, it instills that other sense of 'I'm more important than I think. I'm not invisible,'" she said. "It's so easy to be invisible in this world."
At the end of the camp, the children put on a short show at the Paramount Theatre.
"So they get to feel what it's like to be on stage and in costume and in front of an audience," Mrs. Ashley said. "I think that experience really does grow them, and it gives them a sense of confidence, which will help them in the future.
"It helps build that self-confidence. We want to inspire kids and foster a sense of creativity in them. And we never tell them they can't do something."
The camp was not just about singing, but also about moving in certain ways to help tell the story.
Choreographer Caylee Crumpton incorporated jazz and African-style steps into the camp.
"There's a lot of hand motions that go along with the words," she said. "That way, they can remember the words better, too."
Ms. Crumpton also taught the campers all about expression. Then it's not just them doing the moves, but acting out the moves as well.
"Doing the movements gives an extra bit of flavor to the whole show," she said. "It makes the kids really excited, too. They are telling a story through movement."
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This was 11-year-old Laura Graves' first StageStruck camp. She said the most challenging part was talking in front of everybody.
She liked the dancing a lot.
Ben Creech, 7, also attended the camp for the first time. He said the dancing was the most challenging part for him because he felt he needed a lot of practice.
Brianna Smith, 10, attended the STARS camp for the fourth year in a row.
"I like being able to sing because I just love to sing," she said. "I sing at home, too. I just run around the house singing and dancing."
Mrs. Ashley said it's important to start children out in the arts at a young age because their brains are like sponges.
"The kids love singing and dancing at a very early age," she said. "They love music, so why not develop that love early on. Why say, 'Oh, you can't sing, you can't dance, you can't act?' Let's see what they can do."
Mrs. Ashley said theater draws people out of themselves in a way that not very many other things can.
"And StageStruck is building foundations that will make future leaders," she said.