After sitting quiet for over a year, the rehearsal halls in the basement of the Hamilton Family Theatre are full of activity this week, bursting with the pent-up energy of over 50 summer campers eager to break out of Zoom meetings and socialize with others that share a passion for live theatre.
While teaching a cohort of kids in the bowels of the Cambridge headquarters for Drayton Entertainment on Tuesday, associate artistic director David Connolly playfully cautions everyone to be on their best behaviour.
“OK everyone, the media is here. Pretend this is the best summer camp you’ve ever been to,” he says.
“But this is the best camp I’ve ever been to,” 13-year-old Liam Wilson says enthusiastically.
He isn’t kidding.
The Summer Broadway Bootcamp for Teens couldn’t come at a better time for young performers like Wilson, who hails from Ayr and is cutting his teeth in the performance arts as a member of the Grand Philharmonic Choir and Growing in the Arts.
After attending the theatre company's online bootcamp and spending nearly a full year of school at home, Wilson isn’t alone in his enthusiasm for getting back to the in-person experience.
“I really missed seeing people,” he says. “It’s been so long since I’ve been in the theatre. Here I get to socialize and show my true self.”
That’s exactly what Connolly wants to hear.
“The kids have been such heroes this last year and a half,” he says. “So the thought of them being in rooms with like-minded people to have that outlet of self expression is just so exciting for us.”
“Their energy is really contagious.”
The head of Drayton's Youth Education Program has help from a number of guest instructors for the camp, teaching techniques like voice over and improv to fill in for what isn’t allowed under current public health guidelines.
Dancing has to happen in the theatre’s courtyard and singing is still not allowed anywhere on the property.
But how can you have a Broadway camp without singing? Isn't that the most important element of musical theatre?
Not according to Connolly, who should know a thing or two about Broadway musicals after helming over 30 stage productions and choreographing several television projects for major networks.
“The core of musical theatre is acting, because if you can’t act, then you can’t dance and you can’t sing well,” he says.
“When people come to musical theatre and they fall in love with a certain singer it’s because they’re really an actor. They’re acting through song, or acting through dance and so I think it’s very much tied to musical theatre.”
This week’s bootcamp marks the first time the kids are back in the theatre since spring 2020.
Five state-of-the-art rehearsal halls in the Hamilton Family Theatre helps participants follow public health guidelines and stay within their cohorts.
Despite shutting down the entire industry last year, the pandemic pause hasn't been without its silver linings, Connolly says.
“From an optimistic point of view, there’s been a lot of learning," he explains. "There have been times when you slow down for a second and learn and focus on the youth training, which wouldn’t be happening under normal circumstances. It’s been awful, obviously, but there is that silver lining.”
The Zoom camps Drayton offered last year also proved to be very popular as young performers sought an outlet that let them sing and dance for an audience in their own homes.
“Kids are so savvy at the platform” and it tested their creativity, Connolly says.
It also opened their geographical doors to be able to service communities they wouldn’t normally draw interest from because of barriers like transportation.
“So again, there were some silver linings.”
Connolly says they’re not just teaching musical theatre in the sessions. They’re teaching the kids how to be better people and better citizens.
“The skills that they learn are so parallel to life skills," he says. "Even though our vehicle is performing arts, what we’re teaching is self expression, confidence, teamwork and how to take criticism and things that no matter what they go on to become, in whatever form it’s in, whether online or in person.
“This will be something they carry with them for life.”
As for news on Drayton’s 2021-2022 playbill, Connolly says it’s still wait and see when the theatre company will announce a return to the stage.
The City of Cambridge announced this week that starting July 26, indoor spectator seating is limited to 50 per cent capacity with masking still required and two metre distancing when seated with people not from your own household.
Connelly says Drayton Entertainment’s founding artistic director and CEO Alex Mustakas has “done a marvellous job of paying attention” to the situation as the pandemic unfolded.
“He’s not going to risk anybody’s health, either on stage or off stage in the audience.”
Having said that, Connolly adds anything’s possible.
“As of today, there’s nothing programmed, but that could change very quickly.”
