By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Fresh off a successful live theater production of “Into the Woods,” the Sitka Fine Arts Camp is announcing its fall lineup of plays by Young Performers Theater.
“Into the Woods” was the SFAC Musical Theater Camp production for older kids and young adults, and YPT is a year-round educational program for grades two through 12.
Zeke Blackwell, who directed “Into the Woods,” returns to direct the Young Performers Theater productions of Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach Jr.” and “A Wrinkle in Time.” The live action plays follow a year of YPT virtual classes, smaller in-person gatherings and recorded productions.
“Peach” is the junior – or shorter – version of the musical based on the Dahl classic, open to grades two through six, with performances set for November 19-21; “Wrinkle” is a play for middle and high school age kids, and will be performed October 29-31.
Zeke Blackwell directs Fine Arts Camp students in July (Sentinel Photo)
“I loved Roald Dahl as a kid – I remember reading ‘BFG’ and ‘Matilda’ and ‘The Witches,’” Blackwell said. “I was looking for something that was kind of fantastical, that was recognizable, with an uplifting message.”
He said “Wrinkle” is similarly recognizable, uplifting and fantastical, but has the additional challenges for older kids of conveying abstract concepts, such as space, time and “dealing with the forces of evil.”
Classes for both run an entire semester, September 7 through December 17, which means theater and drama classes continue after the productions go on stage.
Blackwell said this semester marks a change in structure, where performers aren’t just rehearsing toward putting a show on stage but building skills along the way and afterward.
Instead of the all-day Saturday rehearsals and inconsistent weekly schedules that performers and directors have become accustomed to, the YPT schedule this fall will be the same every week:
Grades 2-6: Monday and Wednesday 4-5:15 p.m., and Fridays 3-4:30 p.m.
Grades 7-12: 5:20 to 6:50 p.m. Monday and Tuesday; and 5:20 to 7:20 p.m. Wednesday.
Tech Crew classes (grades 6-12) 4-6 p.m. Tuesday and 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday. SFAC technical director Elle Campbell teaches the classes, whose participants are the tech crew for the shows.
This season should feel different, Blackwell said.
“The big shift I’m looking at is combining a class-based model I started last year with the show-based model of the past,” Blackwell said. “We’ll be rehearsing for the show and looking at other topics in theater after the shows close.”
Blackwell said it may be a challenge for some past participants to make room in their schedules but should allow the students to learn more. Schedules will be consistent week to week.
“In the past the rehearsal schedules have been based around the students’ commitments to other activities,” he said. “I wanted to simplify that and ask the students to make more of a firm commitment to the program ... it’ll be an easier schedule to understand.”
Blackwell expects the rehearsals will feel “less intense and more productive” under this schedule.
Since 2014 Blackwell has directed more than a dozen productions at Sitka Fine Arts Camp, including Young Performers Theater plays, musicals, Shakespeare plays and one-act shows.
For “Into the Woods,” actors and tech crew had a “bubble camp,” with a quarantine at the outset and a testing protocol for COVID. For the show, audience members age 12 and up needed to show a vaccination card. It was the first full stage production in Sitka since the start of the pandemic.
The last live YPT play with an audience was “Pirates of Penzance” in February 2020.
Blackwell said the YPT program will generally follow the same rules set by the school district, which includes staying home when sick, sanitizing, social distancing and wearing masks as long as the community is at High or Moderate risk.
Sign-ups, which started Tuesday, are already coming in, he said. Those who sign up will audition during class and will be guaranteed roles.
The tech students will work with Performing Arts Center tech director Campbell. During classes, they will learn technical skills involved in theater, as well as creation of props and building sets, and also run lights, sound and video for the plays.
For more information call the camp at 747-3085, or email zeke@fineartscamp.org.
