Drama camp to teach life skills

PORTALES — All the world’s a stage, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s a natural.

So an upcoming day camp hopes to instill into local young people all the skills they’ll need for the great drama called life.

Patrick McCreary, an Eastern New Mexico University theater instructor and organizer of the Theatre Arts and Drama Academy, said he hopes the program will help its participants develop skills like communication, confidence and organized thinking.

“They’re all basic skills that sometimes we take for granted in the theater, but there’s not anything like that around here, and so we thought we would start something like this since we have the expertise and we have the desire,” he said.

TADA will be open from 9 a.m. to noon for children grades four to six and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for children grades seven to nine in two separate one-week sessions at the University Theatre Center— June 4-8 and June 11-15.

Weeks one and two will have separate themes — “Finding the super hero within” and “Finding your super hero within others,” respectively — and both will see the students learning the fundaments of theater and dance, McCreary said.

“All these and other skills are gonna culminate in a week’s-end showcase at 6 p.m. each week (in the University Theatre Center) that will be free of charge and open to the public, including friends and family, to see what they’ve been doing all week,” he said.

ENMU Dean of Fine Arts Jeff Gentry wrote both of the themes, and will help attendees with vocal exercises.

“My whole life’s mission is to help people communicate more confidently with others, so this kind of camp really helps young people develop their communication skills in a really positive and fun environment,” he said.

Gentry said that even without prior experience in theater, he would support the opportunity for children to communicate beyond their cell phones.

The ideas the camp aims to impart are skills Portales High School drama teacher Heather Hagler credited to her own participation in theater.

“I sometimes forget that aspect, because theater definitely helped me build my self-confidence in high school,” said Hagler, who will be teaching dance classes at the camp.

“I think (theater) helps kids to understand human nature a little bit better and helps (them) to understand each other in a different way than normal,” she said.