GhostBox Productions hosts theater camp

Mary McMullen assisted by her daughter Cora with GhostBox productions presented a theatre camp at Clary Gardens from July 28 to Aug. 1 for young people ages 5 and up.

Campers learned how to create and produce a short play for family and friends to attend at the end of the week. Focusing on developing performance skills through various activities, campers learned about theater.

McMullen said,  "This week, in this camp you are going to create and put on an original play. We are going to ease in, we are going to talk about our story. We are going to see what went on in the original play and you all are going to create this from scratch. Some of our friends who are interested in play writing have started working on our script. A script is something to follow. It has all our words and our stage directions." 

Campers learned about design, texture on backgrounds and the use of color to show dimension by using coloring pages.

"We are going to do a little work back stage and a little work on stage," McMullen said. "If you don't want to act on stage, that's okay because theater has a place for everybody. There are so many jobs to do, stage manager, lighting, designers, set or scenery, music and sound. We need ushers to help people find their seats and hand out programs, house managers and posters. We will be making costume props and scenery props to help tell the story. It takes a lot of people who do a lot of different things to make one show. "

Theater camp has had four workshops; a playwriting work shop, where they came up with the story, an acting workshop, where they come up with characters, a back stage and design workshop to learn about stage lights where they experienced everything first hand and then costumes and props.

 "This year I am making camp t-shirts for everyone. I design costumes professionally so I have a lot of costumes. This is the third time I have done a camp at Clary Gardens. I like having them all together, so the older ones can help the little ones. These kinds of exercises where they work together helps them when they get on stage," McMullen said.