Stage Door Fine Arts camp teaches kids popular song and dance numbers in just a week
Madi Moran (left) and Maddie Miller lead students in the Stage Door Fine Arts musical theater camp - including Grace Worthley - in their dance to "You Can't Stop the Beat" from "Hairspray." Brandon Jimenez pretends to be a bug (possibly dead) during a game of silent museum Tuesday afternoon. (Jim Slonoff photos)
Thirteen kids of different ages and levels of experience and talent started the Stage Door Fine Arts musical theater camp at The Community House Monday. By Friday, director Madi Moran will have the group ready to perform Broadway musicals.
“This is my fourth year doing the camp,” said Moran, Stage Door’s education director. “Every year it’s a completely different group, completely different skills. That’s always kind of the fun part for me, because that keeps it fresh, too.”
On Monday, campers started to learn some easy choreography and did some improv with the goal of making each other laugh.
“That actually provided a lot harder for them than they thought it would be,” Moran said.
On Tuesday afternoon, the class is spending part of their time playing charades. Each kid has the chance to act out one or two animals, with their choices ranging from an electric eel to a chicken.
Moran offers some assists when the actors’ fellow campers were stumped.
“Are you big or little?” “How would you eat?” she asks.
Soon the game is over and it’s time to work on the dance routine to “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from the musical “Hairspray.”
All of the sudden the kids are in position, the music is playing. Moran yells “Five, six, seven, eight” and the twisting begins.
Moran and Hinsdale’s Maddie Miller, who is helping with the camp, do the dance along with the campers so they can follow. Moran also calls out the steps to remind the campers what comes next in the routine.
After practicing the steps they already knew and learning some new ones, they play a game of mystery speeds. Moran plays the song once at a super slow speed and then again, very, very fast. The kids are laughing as they try to keep up with a speedier tempo of an already
quick song.
“On You Tube, you can speed things up, so sometimes I’ll have them do things faster than they need to after they’ve learned it so they can get it in their bones,” she said. “It definitely gets the energy of a 6-year-old out.”
Dealing with students of different ages is one of the most difficult parts of leading the camp.
“It’s quite the spectrum of ages,” she said. “I would say the age range is one of the biggest challenges, just because you want to make sure you are challenging those kids who are closer to 9 and 10 to keep them entertained.”
The games help with that and also teach them how to use their bodies and facial expressions.
“Some of them are very chatty and some of them are very quiet. The more that we can get their bodies involved, the better.”
At one point the kids break out into a high-pitched sound that resembles wolves howling. It’s a constant balance for Moran and Miller to let the kids be silly and have fun while teaching them what they need to learn.
A game of silent museum helps lower the volume in the room and offers another chance to practice acting skills. Campers pretend they get lost at Disneyland, attend a concert, are bugs in a field and more. Moran offers encouragement.
“Grace is really committed,” she says. “She can’t believe she’s seeing Olivia Rodrigo.
“Brandon looks like an ant that got one of those magnifying glasses on him.”
A few rounds of freeze dance follow before it’s back to work on another of the three numbers the campers will perform, “Put on a Happy Face” from “Bye, Bye Birdie.”
The third song the group will perform is “We’re All in This Together” from “High School Musical.”
In addition to learning the music and choreography, campers this week will learn basic stage directions and how to listen to instruction. In five short days, they make a lot of progress, Moran said.
“I think my favorite part is seeing the kids get on the stage in front of their parents and put on, as far as they know, a full show in just a week — especially the kids that are to nervous to do a lot of big things at the beginning of the week. Usually by the end they are on the same page as everyone else because it’s so much fun,” she related.
Miller, who got involved in Stage Door in seventh grade when her family moved to Hinsdale, is enjoying a bit of nostalgia before she heads off to her freshman year at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
“I think it’s fun working with kids who get to experience a level of theater that I did,” she said.
