Summer Camp Buzz: Hendrick Hudson Performing Arts Camp Welcomes Young Entertainers

The Buzz: It’s showtime! Three Hendrick Hudson High School grads have created a theater camp for children ages 8-13 who want to entertain.

Name: Hendrick Hudson Performing Arts Camp

Location: Hendrick Hudson High School, 2166 Albany Post Road, Montrose, NY

Sessions: July 11-15 (Session One); July 18-22  (Session Two); July 25-29 for (Session Three);  August 1-5 (Session Four).

Price: $225 per session ($200 per week if you attend with a family member)

Daily Schedule: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Camp History:  

When best friends Steven Kane, Lillian Stamey, and Maddy Kolker were finishing their senior year at Hendrick Hudson High School in 2009, the professionally-trained young performers thought of a way to make some extra money in the summer while helping young actors in their community—creating a theater camp. With the backing of the local PTSA and the support of their high school teachers, Kane, Stamey, and Kolker were able to get the new camp off the ground in time for summer.

“Everyone was very supportive from the very beginning,” Stamey said, reflecting on their first year in business. Now, fast forward to 2011. The three friends are now college juniors who live away from home at different schools. But they still reunite every summer to keep the local camp going.  

The Camp Experience:

There are three 50-minute classes set up for campgoers each morning. There is an acting class taught by Kolker, who studies acting at University of Arts. Kane, who is an acting/musical theater major at Marymount Manhattan College, teaches a voice class, and Stamey, who is minoring in dance at Ithaca College, teaches a dance class.

After a lunch break, the campers get together to learn a group song and choreography. “We don’t work on a full production of a show, but at the end of each week, we have a show and tell cabaret with a compilation of the things that the kids have learned throughout the week,” Stamey explains.

The most rewarding part?

“We are able to share the experience of what it is to be working on a craft with the kids,” Kane says. “We’re really teaching them dance.  We’re really teaching them to think why they are singing a song and how are they singing a song…What’s going on in a scene? Who are you? Where are you? Not only is it fun, but it’s real education about the craft of what we’re doing.”

Registration: Interested in registering your child at Hendrick Hudson High Performing Arts Camp? Visit http://hhperformingartscamp.webs.com for forms and more information.