FUN Drama Camp for Homeschool High School

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: FUN Drama Camp for Homeschool High School.

You Can Do It: FUN Drama Camp for Homeschool High School

It’s summer break for many homeschool high schoolers! However, we can STILL be logging credits over the summer- in a DRAMATIC way. Drama camp kind of dramatic, that is.

Why Drama Camp for homeschool high school?

For almost two decades, Sister Sabrina ran a drama camp for the local homeschool high schoolers. Most of the 7Sisters’ teens participated (along with dozens of other local homeschoolers)! They all agreed that Drama Camp weeks were the weeks that “Life has meaning”!

In other words, Drama Camp, helped our teens:

Develop confidence
Learn perspective taking
Appreciate their imaginations
Build flexibility and resiliency skills
Experience true teamwork
Stretch what they think they can do and bloom while doing so
Learn to “reapply” (deodorant, that it)

What is Drama Camp for homeschool high school?

First thing you need to know about Drama Camp: YOU can do this! Don’t worry about production value and perfection. Put your effort into the bonding of the teens, teamwork and sharing the play. (You can use Sabrina’s user-friendly guide: How to Direct Drama Camp.)

Drama camp is a week or two where teens participate in a dramatic production. Drama camps are different than a community theater production of a famous play in that:

There are no audition to get into Drama Camp (they will audition for various parts)
Everyone receives a speaking role that fits them (shy or anxious teens will have one- or two-line roles)
Drama camp does not have the goals of developing professional actors, simply to have a lovely and fun dramatic experience
No sets! Keep it simple!
Have an experience with people and characters who can inspire their lives
The goal is to have fun, have meaning, have a dramatic experience

Drama camp for homeschool high school format:

Drama Camp is “Asset-based community development”
- We looked at who we had and local available (assets), and then developed the production (adjusted scripts- parts and lines) based on that. The script would be altered over the course of the first week (scripts are living documents).
- BTW- Need a script for your drama camp! You can find the drama camp scripts (and a how-to guide complete with videos):
  - A Weekend in Calcutta
  - Search for the Solution
  - The Strengths of Sisters: Scenes from Little Women
  - And watch Shelf Life video below
One week or two weeks long (ours started out with one week but expanded to two weeks because the teens demanded it)
Teens work together Mondays through Friday from 9-4 until performance day
- This is a tight turn around- from having the very first read-through of the play on the first day to the presentation on Saturday two weeks later
First day is read through
- Simply sit in a circle and read line by line around the circle so everyone hears the story for the first time. When the line-read comes to a shy person, they are allowed to say “pass” and that is okay.
- After lunch, teens get to pick a character they would like to do. Informal, low key auditions take place
- Then rehearse, rehearse (every day!)
Every day at the end of the day, teens write their mail (encouraging notes to their peers about things they noticed that person did well or tried hard that day)
- Sabrina read over the notes (just to make sure they are okay) and puts them in an envelope for each teen
- In the morning, first thing, she passed out the mail
- This built important social skills:
  - Noticing good in others
  - Sharing encouragement
  - Team work
Several times per day, the teens would reapply!
- Sabrina kept labeled deodorants for each teens. Periodically, Sister Kym (who assisted Sabrina on the camps) would call out “Reapply!” Everyone reapplied. It normalized self-care AND made the room smell better.
Have a lunch break daily
On the Friday of the first performance, they would not only bring lunch but would bring a pillow and blanket. After lunch they would take a rest. Then they would be ready for the performance that day.
Sometimes Sabrina would give awards at the end (such as Vicki’s #4 kid had just had his appendix removed and received the reward for the cast member with the fewest body parts)!

Try a Drama Camp with your teens. Email Sabrina if you have questions: Sabrina@7SistersHomeschool.com. While you wait, listen into our discussion on FUN Drama Camps. Also, check out this Homeschool Highschool Podcast with more drama camp how-tos and this episode with interviews on the set with Drama Camp players.

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