Scenes from the Summer Musical, Annie

 I purposely crashed the dress rehearsal for our summer theatre camp's production of Annie. The cast performed well and, as in all dress rehearsals, fixed issues for the following big performances. I came away with many fantastic photos of our young actors at work.

As in all of our theatre productions, the cast was involved in every step of the production. Students helped make sets, costumes, props and programs for the full-length production - IN TWO WEEKS. I say this all the time; teamwork gets the job done. Everyone works hard but, more importantly, everyone has a lot of fun!

There's an ice cream social, pizza on performance days and a great cast party with Chinese food at the end; not to mention the hilarity of lunch hours!

So...On with the show! Here's a compilation slide show of the dress rehearsal!
Click on the link to see the show: http://animoto.com/play/6Oi0Yiac19UdKEmttG6ddQ

Masters & Mediums

In the art camp, Masters & Mediums, students used works of several artistic masters for inspiration. They learned about each artist and analyzed their work to create unique projects.

In one project, students explored figurative art studies by Henri Matisse.

 They looked at color, form, shape, function, composition, movement and balance to create figure sculptures of their own.

Notice the sculptures capture movement and incorporate vivid primary colors and lyrical human forms found in Matisse's work.

On to the next project!
Instructor, Nedret Andre, talked about portrait drawing, specifically the Mona Lisa. This was a favorite amongst the class as three students had the opportunity to view the actual Mona Lisa in the Louvre over vacation.

Students learned about light source, shading, chiaroscuro, facial proportions and how to incorporate unique character traits.

I think their portraits turned out wonderfully! I highlighted a few that (I felt) are exceptional.

Again, another great week! Students really pushed themselves and , in doing so, created fantastic artwork. Bravo!

Learning & Doing Art with the Mini Masters

Our summer Mini Masters programs cultivate and direct children's natural curiosity and imagination. Mini Masters programs are for children ages 3-6.

 Projects are largely hands-on because young children create best when building, shaping, molding, cutting, scraping and pasting. They are sensory motivated and need to experience each project using all 5 senses.

In People, Places and Things students learn about their world through art. Here, students use paiper mache to create sculptures using a favorite animal or person for inspiration.

 Then, they explored faces by drawing each other using different mediums of their choice.

And then made self portrait paper collages.

In another project, students read books about transportation. They learned about cars, planes, trains and bicycles; how they move and how they are driven. Then, students created roads with a city backdrop (because that's what it looks like when they drive with their families around town).

Students learned about landscapes by drawing their houses....

So much of art is derived from one person's interaction and perception of the world. It's no different for young children.

Satiating Creativity Cravings

Sharing more photos from our summer art program!

Students in Art Discoveries worked with different materials to make 2D and 3D projects. Here, students looked at Picasso's 3D cubist collage study of guitars.

 Then, using a violin for inspiration, students created their own 3D instrument collages.

Still under construction...immersed in the creative process.

Close up of violin "strings." (Our violin, cello and viola players are probably chuckling because the wires that vibrate and produce sound are called strings. We literally used strings for the sound producing wires in the violin collage project).

Behold a wall of finished violin collages and the real thing!

And They Act, Sing and Dance, too!

Last week I shared pictures from our acting workshops - a new summer program feature. The workshops provide an 'acting' introduction to our summer theatre camps. In one week 25+ students work together to perform full-length dramatic or musical productions.

We keep numbers pretty low so each student gets a speaking/singing role and a specific task during production.

Our camps promote team work, responsibility and self accountability (okay, and a lot of fun, too!). Every child has a job, from character role to strike duties. Team work gets the job done!

You won't find fancy costumes or sets at Creative Arts. That's not our style. We feel it's more important for kids to experience the entire production by making props, sets and costumes. When the show ends, kids are extremely proud of what they accomplished, and parents enjoy the life lessons we teach!

Acting requires confidence. We feel creating actors means building a child's self confidence. That's why each student has other responsibilities in addition to character roles. Plus it's more fun, too! It is a challenge, yes, but we feel they can handle it - and they always do!

Art & Theatre Workshop Week

Scenes (get it?) from our workshop week.

In Acting Through Games students practiced acting skills by playing games!
What skills are learned and practiced by playing games? Plenty!
Pantomime, teamwork, vocalization, eye contact, improvising, imagination, creativity...oh, the list goes on and on or until you lose interest and move on to viewing pictures.
Why deliver these great skills using games? Games are fun! It's okay to laugh when something is silly and to learn through play. After all, fun is contagious!

Every time I checked in with the class and instructors, everyone was smiling, laughing and learning. I had to capture it on film! For the most part, this was challenging because kids - especially theatre kids - love to ham-it-up when a camera is present...but I caught some candid shots!

After each game, everyone would gather 'round and discuss what happened!

Great group of kids = great, fun week!

Sizzling Summer Solace!

Creative Arts has run summer programs since the mid-1980's. Each summer is different with constant changes in programs, teachers and students. For instance, this summer we added art and theatre workshops (so students can mix-and-match) and a chamber music program in addition to our usual camps and music lessons. It's good to change, to mix things up and try new stuff! From workshop enrollment, it seems our families like change, too!

The next series of posts will feature photos from our summer programs!

This photo montage depicts one project from the sculpture workshops. Students painted landscapes then folded their paintings to create diorama backgrounds. They sculpted characters from plasticine (the same clay used in stop-motion animation) relating to their background and placed them in the foreground.

Dioramas are fantastic learning tools! Students must create a 3D subject, think about environment, develop a back story (after all, they are capturing a moment in time), paint a backdrop from researching different habitats all while keeping perspective in mind. Ahhhh, learning cleverly disguised as fun!