KidStage Theater Camps Bring “Glee” & “Harry Potter” to Center Stage

By Halley McCormick

This summer, Orcas Center welcomes a pair of guest instructors from the Village Theatre to teach two week-long day camps. The  camps, called “KIidStage,”  follow a different theme each week.

The first week, students participate in a camp centered around the hit television show, “Glee,” and modern musicals, and the second week, the theme is Harry Potter. Both teachers come to Orcas from Village Theatre with experience working with children on musical and theatrical productions.

Karissa Bryant, the first week’s musical director, is back in Washington after a few years of travel, study, and teaching in Asia. She has been a music director and vocal coach with Village Theatre, and she looks forward to helping her students “realize their potential in singing and in life,” she says. Eia Waltzer is this week’s choreographer and director and has been working with KidStage productions for the past four years. In addition to performing professionally in the Seattle area, she teaches dance and choreography for high schools and theaters.

This week, the camp includes about twenty students, between the ages of eight and thirteen years old. Every day, participants work on songs that they will ultimately perform at the end of the week. They practice the songs themselves, learning the lyrics and melodies, and then they add choreography to every number.

Besides working hard on their songs, the students play theater games and practice creating new characters. They will showcase the final product of their work in a demonstration for their friends and family. This demonstration will take place on Friday, June 24, from 3:30 to 4 p.m. on Orcas Center’s Center Stage.

Next week’s Harry Potter workshop will result in a performance on Friday, July 1, from 3:30 to 4 p.m., also on Center Stage.