Acting up

A lot of kids spend their spring break lounging around the house playing video games or watching television. But at the Permian Playhouse, they’re getting productive.

About 30 kids in grades kindergarten through sixth are attending the 2010 Spring Break Drama Camp this week in preparation for a 5:30 p.m. Friday performance for their parents of songs, skits and scenes from the musical "Mulan Jr." — ahead of the Playhouses full production of that play in April and May.

They’ve also done crafts.

"We’re making fans and stuff because of Chinese New Year just passed, and we’re doing Mulan and stuff," 8-year-old Allie Mitchell said. Some of the stuff they’ve made includes Chinese lanterns, hand puppets of their own designs and fortune cookies they baked and gave to their parents.

In other words, the camp, which runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. all this week, provides a full experience.

"We go and make art, and we do singing and we dance. And we do lunch," Tanner Wilson, 7, said.

Billy Baker, a freshman at Bonham Junior High, is one of 20 or so Kaleidoscope Company counselors helping teach, watch and corral all of those energetic children throughout the day. As an actor himself, he said he loves working with kids and exposing them to theater in a way they may not have had a chance before.

"I like showing them something completely new and watching them enjoy it," Baker said.

Abbi Smith, also a Bonham freshman, said she’s been a counselor since she was in seventh grade and has had to learn how to handle the job, especially when some of the older students have an attitude that they’re too cool to participate in some activity. But for all of the kids, Smith said she likes to show the students "the feeling of being up on stage and people watching them."

Jeremy Dorin is a seventh-grader all the way from Sonora and is attending the camp as both a student and counselor-when-needed. This was his first time at the camp. As opposed to thinking he was too cool to participate, for him, the camp was an opportunity to strengthen his theatrical skills and learn finer points of acting from people with more experience.

"I’ve always been an actor for as long as I can remember," Dorin said.

Although he seemed determined to explore a thespian future, for others, commitment was more mixed.

When asked if she thought she wanted to be an actor when she got older, 7-year-old Bobbiae Spirling said indeed she did, because it seemed fun.

"But I really want to be a pediatrician because it seems really fun, too," the Reagan Elementary first-grader said.

COMING SOON
>> What: Disney’s ‘Mulan Jr.’
>> When: 7: 30 p.m. April 23, 24 and 30, and May 1; 2:30 p.m. April 24 and 25, and May 1 and 2
>> Where: Permian Playouse, 310 W. 42nd St.
>> Tickets: $10 for adults, $5 for children younger than 12
>> Call: 550-5456