Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

March 22, 2007 issue


Register Now for Summer Arts Camp and Missoula Children’s Theatre

Watauga Arts Council Program June 18 to 23

The Watauga Arts Council is now accepting registrations for its annual Summer Arts Camp featuring the Missoula Children’s Theatre. The camp will take place Monday, June 18, to Saturday, June 23. Local students will be given the opportunity to experience interactive, multidisciplinary arts activities with local artists, as well as rehearse and star in a theatrical production of The Little Mermaid.

The Watauga Arts Council has worked in partnership with Missoula Children’s Theatre for many years to present local children with an introduction to the performing arts. Missoula Children’s Theatre, the nation’s largest touring children’s theatre, has toured extensively for more than 30 years and will visit more than 1,000 communities this year with 35 teams of tour actor/directors. All MCT shows are original adaptations of classic children’s stories and fairytales.

The production is designed with suitable parts for every age, skill and experience level. During five days of intensive rehearsal, children will learn their lines, staging, songs and dances. Older students will be cast as assistant directors and will focus on technically oriented tasks such as mounting the set, working lights and sound equipment, and assisting with teaching the show to the cast.

The Summer Arts Camp is open to rising first graders through rising tenth graders and will operate Monday to Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., on Friday from 9:00 a.m. until show time and on Saturday from 12:00 p.m. to show time. Performances are tentatively scheduled for Friday, June 22, at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, June 23, at 3:00 p.m. All activities will take place at the Watauga High School auditorium.

Besides rehearsals for the play, the camp will feature workshops in storytelling, music, movement, improvisation, visual arts and more. The registration fee for the Summer Arts Camp is $110 per child. Sixty-five children will be registered on a first-come, first-served basis. Scholarships are available for families in need.

If a child would like to participate in only the production of The Little Mermaid, he or she may do so. Rehearsals will take place throughout the week and prior to each of the performances…though not all children will be involved in each rehearsal session each day. The registration fee for participation in this portion alone of the Summer Arts Camp is $60 per child.

Dianne Hackworth, a well-known storyteller and artist educator, is once again coordinating the Summer Arts Camp. Hackworth teaches storytelling classes at John C. Campbell Folk School, is an artist in residence in the schools of western North Carolina through the Mountain Arts Program and provides storytelling workshops throughout the Southeast region. Hackworth is included in the North Carolina Arts Council Artist Directory and is on the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Approved Artists Roster and the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Arts in Education Artist Roster.

Hackworth is the founder of the High Country Yarnspinners, a storytelling organization in the Boone area, and co-founder and president of the North Carolina Storytelling Guild. Under Hackworth’s direction, some of the storytelling events annually presented in the Boone area include the Yarnspinners Festival, Watauga County Schools Storytelling Festival, Fourth Friday Yarns, the Halloween StoryFest and Tellabration, An Evening of Storytelling for Adults.

To register your child/children for the camp or for more info, click to www.watauga-arts.org or contact the Watauga Arts Council at 828-264-1789.