Shows, Shows and More Shows!
Editor’s Note: This post was written by Camp Photographer & Communications Assistant Will Ciardelli
Our Intermediate and Skills Intensive session was jam-packed with incredibly productive training sessions, tiring rehearsals and two fabulous shows.
The focus of our second week was put towards creating a showcase that was presented on the final Friday to family and friends. Coaches brainstormed with the intermediate campers to decide a theme for the show they were working to create, ideas such as Outer Space, Western, even a Beyoncé theme were considered but we ended up building the show around the theme of Adventure. This opened up a great pool of ideas including an Indiana Jones boulder reference with the use of rolling globes which to many campers delight was put into the show.
While intensive act planning and choreography was taking place, our Skills Intensive campers were working on creating a separate show of their own. They worked tirelessly to figure out ways to involve everyone’s different skill sets into a well balanced show which I think is safe to say they executed perfectly. This included many aerial acts, assorted juggling performances and even contortion which was wonderfully put together and performed as a before the Intermediate Show.
And if you’re thinking, “Wow that’s a lot of planning for just two weeks,” we also want to share that our Road Show campers, who are now just halfway through their 5 week session, were focused on training, but as of now have moved into their own process of show creation as well! They also had to choose a theme for their show, and ended up deicing on, “A Day in the Life,” which goes on the road in just under a week! We are thrilled to see what they come up with in the following week, and even more so to see them go out and perform for different communities around Vermont.
On Friday morning, friends and families of our campers arrived to see the end of session show, and even though it was a rainy day, camper spirits were high and the campus was filled with smiles and excitement for the showcase.
The day started with a pre-show in the Balance Barn and included unicycle and stilts acts to warm up the audience for the main shows awaiting them in Mama Mia.
Everyone filed into our blue and white big top and filled the bleachers ready for the second act! The show went better than anyone could have imagined, and everybody left with wide smiles and happy hugs of goodbye, hoping to see one another again next summer or later down the road. We want to thank the parents and guardians who lent us your children for the last two weeks. It has been such a joy watching them grow and improve. We hope to see you all again and hope you brought home a little piece of that Smirkus magic you found here at camp.