Students finding theater camp fun

POTSDAM — Two students wander across a small stage, each looking for the other, but somehow, they keep missing each other.

The first time, one is under a chair while the other is on top of it. Another time, they pass with their backs to each other.

They are high school students developing a physical comedy skit as part of a theater camp at SUNY Potsdam, which began this week. At the end of the three-week program, they will present a one-act play about life in high school.

"We're trying to give them what would be a professional experience. That's why they're doing voice, dance, physical theater, improvisation, physical theater," said Jay W. Pecora, assistant professor of theater and dance, who is in charge of the camp. "It's providing an authentic experience for kids who want to go into theater."

After working on monologues — critical to a successful audition — for about an hour, the students broke up to go to classes they'd selected: dance or physical theater, followed by technical or musical theater.

"Bigger is better in terms of physical comedy, whereas not always in your monologues," Mr. Pecora said to the seven high school students in the slapstick class. "Butt bumps are funny. Men dressed as women — funny. Two men dressed as women bumping butts, pure hilarity."

The students devised their own skits, each no longer than a few minutes, using at least three different slapstick techniques. In both, one student would move and, a few seconds later, another would shadow the movement exactly. It got the audience laughing and prompted a discussion about the Marx brothers and the importance of comedic timing.

"I like the physical comedy, it's fun — the improv," said sophomore Troy M. O'Brien, Potsdam, who put on a falsetto voice and professed his love for another, male, character while hidden behind a door in his skit. "I kind of do the voices all the time, so when they found out I could do that, that's where they put me."

The program, which has 50 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, is in its second year. Last year, it was one week long and had a much smaller group, Mr. Pecora said. This year, the younger students come for two weeks, and those in high school are around for three. The other 40 students will start Monday.

On Aug. 14, each of the three age groups will perform something they devise themselves and something scripted. The youngest students will do a puppet show. The oldest, the one-act play, some songs from various musicals and another piece yet to be determined. The students may chose to do a longer slapstick skit.

"The showcase will be run by students; they'll be doing the calls, working the lights, maybe even hanging the lights," Mr. Pecora said. "The idea is, they get to create some of their own stuff."

Most of the high school students were from St. Lawrence County. The program is run with help from two theater-education students and another in dance at SUNY Potsdam.

The high school students seem enthusiastic about it; four days into the camp and already at least one student has some bumps and bruises and a Band-Aid on his knee.

"Yesterday, they were using the slapstick to beat each other up," Mr. Pecora said. "Someone was chasing him, and he fell down."