Farmland center to host

musical theatre workshop

Historic Farmland USA will begin accepting registration for its fifth annual Young Actors Musical Theatre Workshop and Summer Camp Monday, June 9 at 9 a.m.

Workshop classes will be offered in three age groups. The Junior Camp for ages 7-10 will meet Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to noon, the Youth Camp for ages 11-14 will meet Monday-Friday from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. and the Student Teaching and Performance Internship Class will meet Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. All classes will be offered in two sessions. The first session is July 21-25 with a final showcase performance Saturday, July 26. The second session is July 28 - August 1 with a final showcase performance Saturday, August 2.

All classes and performances will be at the Farmland Cultural Center, 130 N Main St., downtown Farmland. Registration forms are available at the Cultural Center or by calling (765) 468-7631. Registration is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis to students age 7 to 17. Tuition is $45 per student per session and is payable at registration. Some scholarships are available for qualifying families. For more information call (765) 468-7631.

The workshop is the combination of two previously existing programs, the very popular Young Actors Workshop at Muncie Civic Theatre, and American Heritage Theater Project's nationally recognized Musical Theater Mentorship Workshop begun in Portland, Oregon, which gives students hands-on experience working side-by-side with professional actors, teachers and directors as both students and professionals work toward the shared goal of producing a play. In past workshops parents have noted improvement in communications skills, self-confidence, vocabulary, teamwork and leadership abilities in workshop students and credit the program with encouraging such positive development, while students have discovered how much fun it is to participate in live performance.

During the week-long workshop, students will spend half of each daily session learning basic theatre skills including theater games and warm-up exercises, character development, scene study, memorization, music and voice, dancing and movement, set and costume design and more. The second half of each class is spent rehearsing The Great American Musical Theatre Extravaganza with a particular emphasis on the skills learned during the first half of the class. At the end of each week-long session, the students perform a fully staged and costumed version of The Great American Musical Theatre Extravaganza at the Farmland Cultural Center.

The final showcase performances are free and open to the public. Older teenage students enrolled in the student teacher and performance internship program will assist in teaching the younger students and perform their own songs as part of the final showcase.

Teachers for the workshop include former Muncie Civic Executive Director and Monroe Central Drama Director Darrin Murrell and his wife, Taylor University music instructor Julie Barber. The final performance will be tailored to the students registered in the class and will include songs and scenes from the most popular shows in Broadway history.

For more information, call (765) 468-7631.

--Bill Richmond