Kids hone performance skills

Lauren Vane

The Academy for the Performing Arts Junior summer camp is more than

just a camp.

Students at the camp develop performance skills and have the

chance to dabble in every facet of theater production. From

front-of-house marketing to behind the scenes lighting, the camp is

designed to show students that there’s more to theater than acting.

At the end of July, the students will have their chance to show

their instructors -- and anyone else who wants attend -- what they

have learned when they present a shortened version of “The King and

I.”

Some campers come into the program with extensive theater

experience; for others this is the first time, said vocals coach

Natalie Kollar.

The students must audition for roles in the feature production,

but in day-to-day camp, anything goes.

“We have all variations of talent,” said Kollar, an alumnae of the

academy.

Aside from rehearsing for “The King and I,” campers spend time

immersing themselves in a chosen theater element, referred to as

their “major.”

On Thursday afternoon, students in the vocal majors class were

busy belting out a number from the Broadway musical, “Hairspray.” As

selected campers sang intermittent solos, Kollar led the group in

dancing a choreographed number.

In a classroom downstairs, campers in Holly Ahlborn’s acting

majors class enthusiastically participated in acting exercises and

practiced monologues.

“They all have a love of theater, in some respect,” Ahlborn said

of the camp participants. Many of the children plan to attend the

academy, based at Huntington Beach High School in the future.

“If they’re here, it’s because they have an interest,” said

Ahlborn, the camp’s director of production.

Thirteen-year-old Donna Biegel, of Huntington Beach, has

participated in the camp before and said her favorite lesson is

improv.

“I wanted to learn more about acting,” Donna said.

“I just love acting,” said another camper Travis Leland, 13, of

Huntington Beach. “I think it’s influenced me for a long time.”