Summer is a busy, crazy, wonderful, fun, wild time at Laura's Center for the Arts! Fortunately we have the opportunity to bring in an amazing group of camp staff who are from a variety of backgrounds.  One such staff is back for her second summer with us, and we couldn't be more excited to have her on our team!

 Madison "Madi" tower is home from her first year at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and is assisting with our dance and theatre camps, as well as stepping into the role of lead instructor for our Teen Theatre Intensive.  Madi has been consistently held in regards by the campers, their parents, and her coworkers, often taken on leadership roles instinctively.  Madi's specialty classes such as improv and Broadway dance are always full of laughter and without fail put on a great performance at the end of the camp session.  She loves the diversity of arts that the campers here are exposed to and the creative environment fostered by the staff!

Madi hopes to go on the become a dramaturge or to work with a film production company.  Fortunately we will be able to say this up and coming theatre professional got her start here at Laura's Center for the Arts.

"Art is about creation and adding something new to the world" - Madi Tower

Our tag line for the summer is creativity starts here.  After a successful two weeks of "Explore the Arts" camp, the art center has EXPLODED with young actors, dancers, and artists! This group of campers is at Laura's Center for the Arts Monday through Friday for a full two weeks, creating, laughing, and learning.  

Creative Kids art camp has been working diligently, reprising the papier-mâché turtle project, working on individual projects, and creating really cool self portraits!  Campers took initiative to come up with new and interesting concepts and making their projects their own!

Dance camp has been working on learning choreography for "Happy" and "Holding Out for a Hero".  The high energy numbers have resulted in hours of smiles and laughs!  The campers also have been working as a group to choreograph "Applause" as a group! 

Theatre camp is well under way with its production of Cinderella!  The campers all learned about how to audition, and recieved their roles! It is a great sight to see a group of thirty youth cheer and clap for each other, even when for those who got the role that they wanted! The music and blocking we have been working on looks and sounds amazing already!

We are gearing up for a performance of percussion after a successful first week of our summer concert series with the Plymouth Philharmonic. For our second week, we invite the younger guests to come a little early and create some home made instruments! Below are some ideas, so feel free to make some at home before the performance, or join us to make some at 6 PM on Wednesday, July 9th!



Why not start with these great crocodile clickers? Click here for a link to the original post! 

Clickers not your style? Follow this link for detailed instructions on making shakers out of recycled bottles and rice! This project involves a lot of supplies, but don't be afraid to get creative! If you shake it and it makes a fun noise, you've done a great job!

These little guys are homemade lamellophones or finger pianos. Who doesn't have a ton of extra bobby pins hanging around? This is a great chance to explore how different materials make different noises! More detailed instructions after the jump! 

So get your instruments ready, and join us for an interactive concert of percussion by the Plymouth Phil at Laura's Center for the Arts this Wednesday at 6:30 (interactive activities and seating start at 6)

Laura's Center for the Arts kicked off our summer camp season with "Explore the Arts" camp.  This camp allowed campers the freedom to choose between a performance workshop, working on Green Eggs and Ham from Seussical, learning several ways to make a monster from Beth Gilmore, or learning how we design and paint our sets for our upcoming theatre camp productions.  In addition to their normal classes we took two days to bring in professional artists to run workshops with the campers. 

Tuesday we had the incomparable Maggie MaClellan, a local artist, working on papier-mâché with the kids.  She brought in pre-made turtle shells, created using recycled newspaper and masking tape, and taught the campers her process of sculpting the newspaper and wrapping it in the tape, creating the arms, legs, tail, and head.  They then covered the turtle forms in paper we had decorated earlier in the morning.  Even the most squeemish campers eventually got used to "the goo" and we ended up with a menagerie of turtles, some looking like they had been hit  by a graffiti artist, and some modeled after Maggie's own creation, wrapped in old bits of map. 

Turtles created by the campers!

On Thursday we were visited by Brent Beissel from the Bosse School of Music.  Brent spent a few hours teaching the basics of rhythmic notation with the campers.  He gave them all a chance to experience different types of drums, shakers, bangers, and things that go bump in the orchestra! The campers left that day knowing a lot more about how to count their Tas and TiTis than most adults!!
 

More information about Maggie and her works can found here

More information about the Bosse School of Music can be found here