The Village of Round Lake may not be as big as some of its neighboring communities, but for two days the sleepy streetscape little place will be host to dozens of young theater talents.
On Friday and Saturday, Aug. 3 and 4, productions of “Honk! Jr.” (a musical version of `The Ugly Duckling`) and “The AristoCats Kids” are set to be performed by the youth drama group Summer Stars and Carpe Diem Productions at the Round Lake Auditorium.
Summer Stars Director Heather Ferlo said the auditorium doesn’t see a lot of use and that the influx of campers and audiences last year was a surprising success for everyone.
“I think it’s a really great thing for the village and they took to it very well last year,” said Ferlo.
Summer Stars was brought together by Joe Shaver, an English Arts teacher and drama club director at Ballston Spa Middle School. He has also been a day summer camp counselor for more than a decade. He was looking to bring the arts and a summer camp experience together when the Round Lake Auditorium was looking for proposals to use its space.
The camp program returned this summer by popular demand and has seen some growth. In its first year the group was made up of children from grades 7 through 10. This year, they’ve added opportunities for kids from grades 2 through 6. The younger set of kids will be performing “The AristoCatsKids” and the older kids will be putting on “Honk! Jr.”
“The program was designed for two main reasons. One, to give children the opportunity to perform over the summer and two, to give students an opportunity to grow with the program and perhaps one day be the director or choreographer,” said Shaver.
Shaver’s philosophy employs having older kids be counselors to the younger ones, a concept that has been popular among campers and parents. The camp has six counselors (from grades 10 and up) along with many parent volunteers.
“Parents can’t believe how much their children have grown in the weeks they’ve been with us. I hear words like ‘proud,’ ‘surprised’ and ‘happy,’” said Shaver.
Ferlo is a sophomore at The Crane School of Music in Potsdam and is in her second year with the drama group. She’s proud of what the kids have accomplished in just several weeks.
“It’s such an outlet for these kids. They feel more comfortable embodying a character than maybe they do in real life. And I think it helps them form relationships and bonds with other people that they share the same interest with,” she said. “They end up as like a 25-person team, which is really cool. There are no cliques, it’s just a family.”
The casts of both shows were busy at rehearsal on Monday, July30. Their voices poured out to the Victorian homes and winding streets of the village.
Marley Amico, 15, will be a sophomore at Ballston Spa High School in the fall. She plays Mother Swan, Henrietta in “Honk! Jr.,” her fifth show.
“It’s really the highlight of my summer. Everybody is so close and we all work so hard to make such a great production,” she said. She added she’s learned many voice and acting techniques through the camp and plans on using them in future roles.
Ella Palmer, 8, is a student at Chango Elementary School in Clifton Park and plays Marie in “The AristoCats Kids.”
“I think it’s going to be a good show. … I think other people should try this (camp) because it’s really fun,” she said.
Funding for the camp and productions is made possible by ticket and concession sales.
There will also be paper lanterns decorated by the kids for sale at the shows for a minimum donation of $5 each.
Shaver said, “The paper lantern is a very important part of Round Lake’s history. Almost every house has paper lanterns hanging on their porch.”
