By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitka Fine Arts Camp reported a record number of signups on New Year’s Day, the traditional first day of registration for the camp’s lineup of summer programs for students from grade school through high school age.
In the first hour after midnight Tuesday, Jan. 1, a record 240 students had registered for elementary, middle school and high school camps.
The total for New Year’s Day was 520, beating the 505 record set last year, camp staff members said.
The classes offered always fill up quickly, which is one reason for the midnight rush to register. Another is to secure a space in the limited dorm housing available.
“Last year we had such a long wait list,” said Rhiannon Guevin, SFAC operations director.
Camp organizers responded by adding more dorm space for this year’s popular middle and high school camps.
There also are more opportunities for the young artists to study their art forms more intensively.
“We’ve got new programs we’re excited about, new intensives for high school students who want to extend their camp experience or who want to focus on one subject intensively for the week,” she said.
This year’s schedule is June 10 to 14 for elementary camps, June 16 through 29 for middle school camp, and June 30 to July 14 for high school camp.
Intensives will be offered for one week following high school camp, in photography, ceramics, writing, dance and jazz.
Immediately following high school camp there will be a two-week Musical Theater Camp, July 14-28, that culminates with the students’ presentation of a full-length Broadway musical.
This year’s play is “Oklahoma!” under the professional direction of WT McRae.
“It’s been awhile since we’ve done a classical musical,” said Guevin, who works with vocalists at Musical Theater Camp. “‘Oklahoma!’ is about as classic as it gets. It’s an important piece in the musical theater canon. Whether you know it or not, you know songs from ‘Oklahoma!’: ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,’ ‘Surrey with a Fringe on Top,’ ‘Oklahoma!’ ...
“WT, the director of the program, is excited about the educational opportunities in the show. There’s a lot of issues around gender and class he’s excited to explore with the students.”
Guevin said McRae and SFAC also believe it’s important to expose students to both modern and classic shows, “and looking at all shows as educational opportunities to explore important subject matters,” Guevin said. “Theater is an important vehicle for that.”
The camp is also excited about some of the new and returning faculty members, including acrobatics and circus instructor Mark Ferrando, who appeared in the film “The Greatest Showman”; dancer Tommy Scrivens, who is working on the upcoming Bob Fosse-inspired show on FX; and Cristy Maltese, who was a Disney animator on such shows as “Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
