The Dramatic Arts

“This class is so much fun! I love being creative, getting to do all these original things. This is a great theater community, and I have always loved being on stage.” - Noah from Cabin 39.

The Performing Arts provides us with an opportunity to expand our imaginations and challenge our perspectives. It gives us the space to go beyond the ordinary and create something magical and inspiring.

This session combines both music as well as drama, creating a fusion art that can accommodate many different talents.

We also had the campers and counselors practicing for the talent show! Which is highly anticipated by everyone. We are excited to see what everybody comes up with.

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” - Thomas Merton

Warm Up Activities

Of course, we start with some warm up games. These include vocal warm ups, as well as physical warm ups.

Warm ups include sitting in a circle and participating in activities, moving your body and warming up your voice in preparation for music. One warm up which was particularly fun was the scale warm up, where 1 was a lower pitch, and 8 was a higher pitch.

An interesting game that the boys enjoyed for the drama warm ups included the Bench Game. This involves having two participants sitting on a bench together, they start a scene and then someone in the audience will clap, causing the two to pause. The audience member who clapped then gets to replace one person of their choosing from the scene and create a new one. This helps the boys think on their feet and improve their improv skills.

Performing Arts

These sessions are great fun. The boys have opportunities to improve their skills through improv situations, as well as showcase their talents with mini skits. The counselors are great at ensuring each boy has an important role to play, and feels involved.

An example would be having the four boys split up and given an individual role, they each had a little prep where they were given a character. Each character had a different emotion to convey, causing conflict throughout the story. The boys were able to improvise a whole 5 minute scene, without having any prior knowledge of each other’s characters. This was a fun little exercise that proved their ability to think on their feet.

“With theater, you have to be ready for anything.”- Willem Dafoe

Music

Music is known as a universal language that truly speaks to the heart, some of our boys are singers, while others play musical instruments. It has the ability to heal and uplift people through rhythm and frequencies, connecting a group of people.

Falling Creek Song

Alex, our theater leader, is working on a Falling Creek theme song with the boys and we absolutely love it!

The chorus goes like this: At Fall-ing Creek, You’ll find me down at pickleball. At Fall-ing Creek, Or Flying up the climbing wall. But whether I go ridin’, backpacking or mountain biking, At Fall-ing Creek, I’m sure that I am gonna try it all.

The whole song really captures the essence behind who we are at Falling Creek, as well as how our boys enjoy their time here.