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Fifth annual Kids’ Fine and Dramatic Arts camp a success

Numbers were down, but the participants had a great time and put on a wonderful end-of-camp show.
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Kids’ Arts Camp participants in Kindergarten and Grade 1 stage their production of Evil Never Wins, which they wrote themselves. Photo by Barbara Roden.

The fifth annual Kids’ Fine and Dramatic Arts Camp, sponsored by the Winding Rivers Arts &Performance Society (WRAPS), has finished for another year, with 35 children aged four and up taking part in the week-long event. The camp concluded on August 18 with a gala performance and art display, allowing the students to show off their newly-acquired skills.

The number of participants was down from past years, but those who took part threw themselves into learning art with Jo Petty and Julie Ells, singing with Theresa Takacs, acting with Mavourneen Varcoe-Ryan, and Pound! with Karen Savage. The 11 teenaged participants spent the week filming and acting in the short film The Undone Idea, based on a script by video instructor Gareth Smart.

At the performance, the K–1 students did a Pound! number that they had learned in a day, and were followed by the Grade 2–4 students doing two Pound! numbers. The K–1 students then performed the play Evil Never Wins, with Varcoe-Ryan noting that the students wrote the play themselves after deciding on setting, characters, the conflict, and its resolution.

The Grade 2–4 students had also written their own play, called The Witch vs. Superman and Supergirl. The five students in Grades 5–8 then performed their play Destiny Saves the Day, and were followed by almost all the participants in the camp singing the song “Picnic” (the “Ice Cream” song) from Anne of Green Gables: The Musical, which WRAPS will be presenting in November.

Anne of Green Gables cast members Vivian McLean (Anne Shirley), Mattias Sampson (Gilbert Blythe), and Sarah Onstine (Diana Barry) all took part in the number, and were enthusiastically and ably supported by the other Arts Camp participants in the chorus.

The event was to have ended with a screening of The Undone Idea, but technical difficulties prevented it from being shown. However, The Journal was able to see the film on YouTube (http://bit.ly/2v4rcSD), and watch as three aspiring filmmakers try to come up with an idea for a movie that hasn’t been done before. Unfortunately, all their fresh ideas are suspiciously close to existing films; and then difficulties and conflicts in their personal lives begin to emerge. Will they overcome the obstacles and make something unique? Watch and find out.

Clips from two of the Pound! performances, as well as “Picnic”, can be seen on the WRAPS Facebook page at http://bit.ly/2vfdStV.