The Marin Shakespeare Company summer camp I took was one of the best few weeks of my life.
I am a lifelong homeschooler, currently in 10th grade, and was very interested when I heard about this camp. I had never really done much “acting-wise” on stage but I always wanted to try it.
We worked on the play Pericles, and with it being my first real experience working on a Shakespeare play, it was a fantastic introduction to Shakespeare’s work. Before I did the camp, I knew next to nothing about Shakespeare or any of the plays from back then. But, after having done it, it made me feel very well versed in the general language of the time.
I became familiar with things such as the iambic pentameter and the general definitions of the words used in Shakespeare’s time. I also gained essential acting skills such as projection, general blocking and I learned tips on line memorization. The camp had a very open and welcome environment and plenty of time to work on all aspects of the play. I, myself, never felt the need to have to work on lines outside of the time spent there.
With it being very helpful education wise, it was also incredibly fun. The director was very nice, respectful and open to the students’ ideas for the play. They ended up splitting a few main roles into sections so people would switch out the role between some scenes since those roles had so much time on stage and they wanted all the actors to have plenty of stage time.
You got to request a role to play after we did the first read through and they did their best to let you work on the role(s) you wanted. Most people got one or one section of the main character and then a couple of side characters. I ended up playing a segment of the narrator/storyteller named Gower, an assistant to a physician, and the head pirate of a ship, all of which I loved playing.
And one of the best parts is it provided a great opportunity to get to know the other actors and make friends. You would be surprised at how well a performance is at bonding people. I even met some of my closest friends to this day at the camp. I highly recommend this experience to all!
“By Landers Markwick, student at Teen Performance Camp, 2018”
Contact: Marin Shakespeare Company
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