Montgomery Theater showcases social skills and creativity
Students at Montgomery Theater displayed cool thespian style on and off the stage this summer at a three-week-long theater camp.
The camp was held in three separate sessions for students in grades two through 12 during the last three weeks of July.
Montgomery Theater, located at 124 Main St. in Souderton, is a 122-seat theater that serves as a home base and venue for local acting projects and a theatrical education program. The theater hosts about five live theatrical productions per year.
Throughout the year, two of Montgomery Theater’s five main-stage shows feature junior actors.
Recently, the Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia nominated Montgomery Theater for the organization’s Barrymore Award in the excellence in theater education and community service category.
Barrymore winners will be announced Oct. 5 at an awards ceremony at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia.
Montgomery Theater director of education Megan Hoffman, an assistant professor of theater at Delaware County Community College, led the three weekly sessions for students.
The first Montgomery Theater camp session was a found theater program where students went out into the community to perform “rehearsed improvisation.” For example, students walked to a construction site across the street from the theater, and through collaborative sound and movement created an imaginary machine. Hoffman said the construction workers at the site got a kick out of the performance.
A musical theater session was held for students to create their own musical. Students worked with dance, voice, and acting instructors at Montgomery Theater to come up with an idea out of their own imagination.
Campers came up with a homespun fairy tale about a princess that included a lesson in friendship, which they performed for family and friends at the theater.
The third session included a mixed-media camp for teens, where students wrote, directed and acted in pre-recorded scenes projected onto the back wall of the stage.
The abstract performance featured a murder mystery theme that was shown in collaboration with the student’s live performance. At the close of the program, students performed the piece for family and friends at the theater.
For the sessions, students were broken up into groups of second- to fifth-graders, sixth- to eighth-graders and teens.
“Rather than give them scripts to memorize, I think its important for the students to create their own work and build their social skills by working as a team,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman, a graduate of New York University’s Educational Theater Program, began her position in January in an effort to make the theater’s educational programs more intensive for students.
Starting this fall, both recreational and intensive theater programs will be offered.
Recreational programs are typically for non-high school and general-interest students, whereas the intensive programs are exclusive to high school students and are meant for students, who wish to seriously pursue acting. Hoffman said that students benefit greatly from the theatrical experience.
“I think there is no community like the theater community. The students really become a family because they are rehearsing and spending so much time together,” Hoffman said.
“Kids need to learn how to build community and have a place to express themselves. They need to learn how to interact and there is no place better than the theater,” Hoffman said.
For more information, visit the Web site at www.montgomerytheater.org or call 215-723-9984.
The camp was held in three separate sessions for students in grades two through 12 during the last three weeks of July.
Montgomery Theater, located at 124 Main St. in Souderton, is a 122-seat theater that serves as a home base and venue for local acting projects and a theatrical education program. The theater hosts about five live theatrical productions per year.
Throughout the year, two of Montgomery Theater’s five main-stage shows feature junior actors.
Recently, the Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia nominated Montgomery Theater for the organization’s Barrymore Award in the excellence in theater education and community service category.
Barrymore winners will be announced Oct. 5 at an awards ceremony at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia.
Montgomery Theater director of education Megan Hoffman, an assistant professor of theater at Delaware County Community College, led the three weekly sessions for students.
The first Montgomery Theater camp session was a found theater program where students went out into the community to perform “rehearsed improvisation.” For example, students walked to a construction site across the street from the theater, and through collaborative sound and movement created an imaginary machine. Hoffman said the construction workers at the site got a kick out of the performance.
A musical theater session was held for students to create their own musical. Students worked with dance, voice, and acting instructors at Montgomery Theater to come up with an idea out of their own imagination.
Campers came up with a homespun fairy tale about a princess that included a lesson in friendship, which they performed for family and friends at the theater.
The third session included a mixed-media camp for teens, where students wrote, directed and acted in pre-recorded scenes projected onto the back wall of the stage.
The abstract performance featured a murder mystery theme that was shown in collaboration with the student’s live performance. At the close of the program, students performed the piece for family and friends at the theater.
For the sessions, students were broken up into groups of second- to fifth-graders, sixth- to eighth-graders and teens.
“Rather than give them scripts to memorize, I think its important for the students to create their own work and build their social skills by working as a team,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman, a graduate of New York University’s Educational Theater Program, began her position in January in an effort to make the theater’s educational programs more intensive for students.
Starting this fall, both recreational and intensive theater programs will be offered.
Recreational programs are typically for non-high school and general-interest students, whereas the intensive programs are exclusive to high school students and are meant for students, who wish to seriously pursue acting. Hoffman said that students benefit greatly from the theatrical experience.
“I think there is no community like the theater community. The students really become a family because they are rehearsing and spending so much time together,” Hoffman said.
“Kids need to learn how to build community and have a place to express themselves. They need to learn how to interact and there is no place better than the theater,” Hoffman said.
For more information, visit the Web site at www.montgomerytheater.org or call 215-723-9984.
