Pleasant Valley School will be the setting for the township’s summer theatre camp, which aims to introduce theater and acting to kids.
The Harrison Township Recreation Commission is currently taking registrations for its annual summer theatre camp that will take place in a three-week period from Mondays – beginning on July 14 – to Thursdays at Pleasant Valley School.
Camp is held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is open to kids 7 and up, regardless of experience level.
“They (the kids) love it,” said Recreation Coordinator Sharon Chew. “It allows children to get involved in theatre.”
The camp is to prepare kids for a 6 p.m. performance that will also be held at PVS. This year’s production is “Red,” a spinoff of Disney’s “Descendants” that focuses on the kids of fairy tale and Disney characters.
“The Queen of Hearts starts a big problem in a place called Auradon,” the commission notes on its Facebook page. “Her daughter, Red, who doesn’t want to be like her mom, teams up with Chloe, the daughter of Cinderella, who always wants everything to be perfect.
“Together, they go on an adventure back in time,” the post adds. “They hope to change something unfortunate that happened, which made Red’s mom turn into a villain. They want to fix things and make everything better.”
The classes will be instructed by Jamie Wagner, a teacher at Penns Grove High School in Carney’s Point who has been with the program for the past few years, according to Chew.
Participants can register for the camp online at signupgenius.com. The website also provides the non-refundable cost of the camp.
For some kids, according to Chew, the camp begins an interest and passion in theatre that they can take with them as they get older.
“Many of these kids continue to do it into middle school and high school,” she said. “We’ve gone to see some of these people do performances at Clearview and Pitman (high schools), and it’s just a wonderful thing to see.”
