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Community Corner

DIY Summer Camp Ends with Silverstein Performance

A local mom and volunteers run a summer camp with a creative twist for the final performance.

This summer, Morton Grove mom Jill Alali ran a summer camp for girls. She created this camp with other parents last year when she was looking for a summer alternative. About a dozen girls showed up three afternoons a week for five weeks. The camp culminated in a theater performance outside Alali's garage.

Patch sat down with Jill and talked with her about the project after a performance the girls created during their summer camp experience.

Earlier:

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Patch: How did you get the idea of this production?

Alali: I've loved Shel Silverstein's poems since I was a child. And I know many of the kids in my children's generation love the poems as well. I wanted the girls to perform a play that would allow each of them to shine and have their moment in the spotlight. I thought it would be neat to take Silverstein's poem book and bring it to life on stage with a series of one-acts.

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However, I didn't want the audience to be bored, so I thought I needed to weave the poems together in such a way that would make the transitions between scenes smooth and meaningful. I created the character of a young girl looking for where the sidewalk ends as the central theme of the play. I tried to write her lines in the spirit of Silverstein, striving to mirror his rhythmic, rhyming, silly, and pleasantly trite style that always hints of a deeper meaning. This is what I love so much about his writing. 

Throughout the play, our young girl character interacts with characters from Silverstein's book, inquiring of each she runs into where the sidewalk ends. By the time she reaches the end of the play all the characters come on stage with her and recite the poem "Where the Sidewalk Ends," with the girl's character picking up the last four lines and reciting them with great awareness, for she finally realizes she has found the place she is looking for: a world that is safe, joyful and silly that only she and the other children can find.

Patch: How did you create the entire play? What was the process?

Alali: I began by imagining the character of a young girl searching for the place where the sidewalk ends. I imagined her interacting with the characters of the book who would first invite her into their world and keep her wandering and interacting with them in a manner that was silly and playful. I imagined the ending of the play having her coming to the realization that she was already where she desired to be. 

I sort of modeled the idea after Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, a character looking for what she already had within her and realizing this at the end of her journey. I also thought it would be neat to incorporate the recreation of some of Silverstein's illustrations since this is such an entertaining and important aspect of his book. I had the girls recreate a few of his illustrations in the form of huge canvas art pieces. While these were on stage a narrator came up to the podium and read the poem that corresponded to that illustration. These canvases also served as blockers so that stagehands could set up for the next scene behind them.

Patch: Where were the actresses from?

Alali: The girls who participated in the theater workshop were from Morton Grove, many students from MCC Full Time School, and some from schools in the surrounding suburbs. They are daughters of my friends. The theater workshop took place over the last five weeks as part of a larger summer camp my friends and I created.

Our summer camp program was called "Sunny Days Summer Camp," and we met three days a week. On Tuesdays we focused on healthy foods and aerobics, Wednesdays we hired two teen counselors to lead the girls in a variety of sports and afterwards to conduct a discussion with the girls on topics to help build the girls' self esteem such as dealing with peer pressure, becoming active in one's community, smart and healthy gender relations, etc.  And Thursdays we had theater workshop where the girls did drama exercises, created the set and costumes and practiced running through the entire play.

Patch: Why did you do this as opposed to sending the kids to a theatre camp?

Alali: My friends and I decided to run our own summer camp program for a number of reasons. We wanted the girls to be exposed to a variety of activities and not just a daily routine with a singular focus. We wanted the camp to be inexpensive. We only charged each participant $60 for the entire program, which ran five weeks, three days a week from 1 to 4 p.m.) Lastly, we wanted the girls to be in a comfortable environment comprised of girls who knew one another and a group that was small in number so no one felt lost in the shuffle. We had about 10 to 12 girls attend each day. 

Patch: What was it like running a summer camp and would you do it again next year? 

Alali: I would totally do this again next year. In fact, this is the second year of our summer camp program. However, last year instead of theater arts we did a weekly biking trip through the forest preserve. Each week our goal was to go a little further than the previous week. We ended up doing a good 12 miles by the time the camp ended.

I would highly suggest other parents structure something like this for their own children. If parents pitch in and volunteer to open their home and lead one day here and there, then it all comes together easily and the work is spread out. We couldn't have done this program without all the help from our parent volunteers. These parents not only opened their home to host the camp for a day but many also donated supplies, others purchased food and led cooking classes, and another mom who is a personal trainer led our aerobics sessions.

The key is to have one or two parents leading the charge, putting together the vision and framework, rallying the troops to get them to take on volunteering for one or two days of camp duties, and then taking the lead on registering all the kids. Once this is done, it's simply a matter of implementation, making sure all the volunteers know exactly what is expected of them on their volunteer day, and keeping participants aware of locations and upcoming events for each day of camp. I actually put together a calendar that has all the activities and locations listed for each day. I give this to participants along with a registration form and liability waiver at the time of registration. The waiver of liability form is a protection from any legal liability relating to the kids for parents opening their home for the camp.

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