34: Voices of the Future: Exploring Faith through the Arts at Music Drama Camp

Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope.

Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online.

We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others.

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Hello listeners, my name is Ashley Black and today, on the Meet Hope podcast, I'm excited to share with you more stories from some of our younger Hope community members.

This time you'll be hearing from some drama campers from Music and Drama Camp which happened at Hope over the last two weeks.

They just had their final show last Thursday, July 27th, and they did an amazing, amazing job, and so if we hope, if you got to see them, that you, if you see one of them or you hear one of them, share, that you cheer them on next time you interact with them and we just want to thank them in advance for sharing a little bit with us.

But without further ado, we'll get right to it.

So please enjoy this episode where we talk with some Hope Music and Drama campers.

So tell me your name.

My name is Corinne.

Corinne, and how old are you?

I'm 10 years old, and how?

How many times have you done Music and Drama camp?

This is my first year and how's it going so far?

Great, do you like it?

Yeah, what is your favorite part?

about it.

I like doing the dances.

So you're in the dance like ensemble.

Yeah.

What does that mean?

What do you get to do?

I get to dance to some songs.

I have a solo and yeah.

That's exciting.

Do you like performing on stage?

Yeah, I've done it multiple times in Kids Choir so I'm kind of used to it.

Oh, awesome.

What are all the different things that you get to do as part of Drama camp?

So I know this week you're rehearsing your show but, last week you did more things right.

Last week we learned dances, we learned our songs and we got to watch the people act and stuff Okay, and do you guys have snack while you're here?

Do you have a favorite snack?

Probably yesterday's, it was pancakes.

The whole building smelled really good when it was pancakes.

And it was like whipped cream and chocolate chips.

Oh, that's awesome.

So this is your first year and you're having a good time.

It's not too scary or overwhelming, or you know.

Does it make you nervous?

No, not really.

So if someone else were thinking about trying it for the first time, why would you say they should give it a try?

Because it's really fun and you get to meet new people and learn new things and stuff.

Cool, okay, thank you.

Tell me your name, I'm Carson.

Hi, Carson, how old are you Ten and how many times have you done music?

This is my second year.

And what are you doing in this year's show?

I'm a dancer, Okay so what does that mean?

What do you get to do?

I get to dance in a lot of dances, but I also sing in a quartet.

What is your favorite part of camp?

Being with all the fun teachers and my friends.

Do you have a favorite class that you've done Like station?

Probably dance, dance and you do that?

Who do you do that with?

Emily and Carly, if someone, let's say it's their first year, let's say it's their first time on stage, how would you encourage them to not be nervous?

I'd say just look in front, don't look at the audience, look over them and just don't think about anybody's in there and just do your best.

Is there anything else you'd want to tell somebody about camp?

Well, I play.

It's fun because you don't have to worry about missing sports, because I play soccer and softball because it's earlier in the day.

Oh, that's great to know.

That's really helpful.

Cool, okay, thank you.

Can you tell me your name?

I'm Jacob Parks.

How old are you?

14.

And how many years have you been doing drama camp?

All six, I believe.

All six years that you can do it.

So what do you know what age you can start drama camp at?

Coming out of second grade, okay.

And what grade are you going into now?

Going into ninth?

You're going into high school, yeah.

Are you excited?

Yeah, yeah.

So what are you doing at music and drama camp this year?

I am one of the main characters, wyatt.

That's exciting.

Is that a lot of responsibility?

Yeah, you have to learn a lot of lines, yeah, and how long do you have to learn all your lines?

Usually it's about eight days before the show how is it going?

Do you feel like you have them?

down.

Yeah, I think I have them down pretty well, we're recording this.

What two days before your show.

Yeah, feel ready.

Yeah, okay.

Do you have a favorite part of camp when you're here?

Probably the first two days.

I like like learning everyone's name and having fun doing stuff, getting the set already.

What are some of the things you do the first couple days?

So painting for the set, making t-shirts for the show, practicing dances, singing, acting.

Do you guys go through like an audition process?

Auditions are on the second day, yeah.

Okay, what do you normally do for that?

It's just we line up in a line and then go on to the stage and say a line that we're supposed to and just try to act it out as well as you can.

If it's like an accent or something, you do the accent.

If it's just an attitude, you use the attitude.

Okay.

So this year your character's name is Wyatt, and what does your character do in the show?

He is trying to help his sister learn prayer, while she thinks that prayer is useless and doesn't work.

And I heard it's like based on a video game kind of.

Yeah, so Wyatt's pretty much the creator of the video game and he's trying to get his sister to play it.

Can you relate to your character?

Do you like video games?

I do enjoy video games, yeah, do you have a favorite, uh, big fan of Halo.

I like Halo a lot, tell us your name.

My name is Jocelyn.

How old are you?

I'm 11.

And is this?

How long have you been doing?

drama camp, since I was in like third grade, okay.

So how many years do you know Um?

I guess like three maybe Okay.

What do you do at music and drama camp?

Um, I sing and dance with my friends.

That's good, and we practice our dance moves together with Miss Christy.

Yeah.

And it's very fun what is really fun about it.

Mostly like being with my friends and spending time with them.

Do you have friends that you like to do drama camp with every year?

My friends Hope and Savannah.

What are you?

What is your favorite part of drama camp?

Mostly like the singing and the dance moves because they're very fun to learn.

Do you learn?

dance with Gabby.

Yes, yeah, so tell me your name, gabrielle, and how old are you, gabrielle?

I'm 23.

So how long have you been involved with music and drama camp?

I think I've been in I was a student in drama camp since one of the first ones, so whenever that was Okay, so like a really long time.

Yes, so you've been a camper and then like a counselor.

Yes, and now I was like a CIT type person for one year and then I think I've been choreographing or the director probably, since, like junior year of high school.

I want to say yeah, yeah.

So tell us what is your role in drama camp.

So I am the dance director and a choreographed dances for the drama camp.

So what?

is different about doing music drama camp when it involves there's like a faith aspect to it.

How does that make it a little different?

Yeah, so I really try to.

Well, when I create movement, I definitely try to incorporate movements with praising God in the movement, which definitely changes it from a regular dance that would just be put on stage.

But I do really enjoy when they are singing about God and those movements correlate with the lyrics or the music.

So I think that's like a really special part.

And being able to share that with kids and share that faith and ability to praise God while dancing and singing and acting, I think that's like really special and really different from any other performance that a kid would be in for theater or anything like that.

So just being able to teach them that and being like, okay, well, this is a phrase about okay, we're praising God, so we're going to lift up our hands to this guy and do a move such as that.

Yeah.

Awesome.

So why do you think it matters that we engage with art as part of like engaging in our faith?

It gives another pathway into learning about God.

So you know, we go to church and we sing songs and we praise the Lord, and that's an art form as well.

But you know, through this you can also learn about God and praise Him, rather than just, you know, reading the Word or praying.

It gives, like another avenue to what, who we are as Christians, and to experience that and to step into something that's more creative.

So I just think it's super important because it's just another way to express yourself while praising the Lord and while connecting to God, which I think is awesome.

My name is Faith Elizabeth Webster and how many years have you done drama camp?

This is my first year.

This is your first year.

Were you really excited to get to do drama camp this year?

Yes, why were you excited to do music and drama camp?

Because I've never really been allowed to be on a stage like that.

I saw you.

Were you trying on a costume when I came in today?

Yes, do you know what your costume is going to be?

It'll cowgirl.

You're going to be a cowgirl.

There's a cowgirl in pray station.

Yes, what other characters are in pray station?

There's a sneaky cowboy, Chloe, and her brother Wyatt, um Rodeo Webber, and there's some cactuses.

I am Charlotte Olson.

How old are you, charlotte?

I am 18, almost 19.

Okay, and how long have you been involved with music drama camp?

A long long time.

Do you remember how old you were when you first did it?

Like did you do it the very first year?

You could do it in third grade.

I did it in fourth grade, in fourth grade.

Okay, so that was the fourth grade.

You're what?

Probably like 11, and now you're 18.

I was probably like 10.

Yeah, Okay, so a long time.

And but you're not a camper anymore.

Nope, okay, what are you this year?

I'm a counselor, so what is it?

What is it counselor at music drama camp do?

Well, I've been working on the set doing set design.

I designed the set for this year.

That's cool.

Was that?

was that hard to do?

No, I actually.

So it's like a pixel art because the show is based on a video game.

Okay, but I do pixel art for commissioning as well, okay.

So it was like right up in your alley, I have experience doing that.

Yeah, you get to use that passion of yours here.

So you designed the set this year.

Yes.

And then how do you make the set come to life?

Well, it took a lot of painting last week.

All I did was paint.

Do you have other people that paint with you?

Yeah, so some of like when people were free they would come in and paint.

When campers were free.

They would come in and help paint, but like measuring things out.

So it's the way we designed it was the longest part of pixel art.

That sounds pretty like intricate.

Yeah, is it like by the like square?

Yeah, we did it by square inch, so it wasn't extremely small, but it was kind of it had to be precise yeah, so you help other campers.

So you help campers now, instead of being a camper, yep, you help lead campers Yep.

Do you like getting to do that?

Yeah, I come back every year because it's like I have a great experience every time I do it, and every year I see the kids put in more effort than they did the time before and improve more.

Like every year.

You see improvement through each camper, and then you see new campers come in and start to learn and start to improve and then they come back and then it's.

It's so cool.

All right, my name is Kane Joins.

And how old are you?

18.

And how long have you been involved with music drama camp?

Since probably sixth grade, so around 12, 13.

So what.

Five, five years, five years.

Yeah.

So why do you do it every year?

The first year I did it because I was kind of made to do it, but I was kind of really grateful that I got to be here when I was done in eighth grade.

I was kind of looking for any way to still be involved with the campus is a good time.

Okay, so when you started out as a camper- yeah.

And then you moved on to a different role.

What do you do after your camper?

So you kind of just help out where you're needed.

So I did set design a little bit, and then I really like working in the tech booth with those guys.

So you're doing this year?

Yeah, do you have a role in the tech booth?

I'm recording the show this year.

Does that feel like a lot of pressure?

Yeah, I've never done it before.

Well, I saw you were training with somebody today.

Yes, so did that.

How'd that go?

Yeah, scott Cruz.

He was back there, kind of telling me all I need to know.

Okay, he told me what buttons to stay away from.

Okay, that's a great thing to tell you, right?

Just don't touch these buttons.

So you've done set design.

You've done your recording.

Do you have a favorite part of camp?

I like watching everybody kind of progress with their lines and have fun becoming their role.

I only acted like one year.

I was hitting the tech booth, but that was so much fun.

So you like the behind the scenes like watching everybody else yeah, which is a big, important role.

If the sound doesn't work and the lights don't work and you can't record, it's kind of a boring show and hear it right.

If someone were to ask you what is music, drama, camp, what would you tell them?

I'd say it's two weeks where you come in.

You know, stop sleeping in as much during the summer, but it's very worth it.

You get to meet a bunch of new people.

I got closer with a couple of guys because of the camp and also, you know, it made me have a reason to read stories about God, even though if it was through plays.

It seems kind of silly.

But when you're not doing anything and then you find these two weeks, it's like oh, I need to get back to doing what I should be.

Yeah, that's really cool.

I asked someone else why they think something like the arts, so music and drama and acting and dance.

Like why do you think that that matters in our faith?

Like why is that a good way to connect with God?

You're having fun and you might not even realize it at times that that's what you're doing, but you're coming to church for one just on days that aren't Sunday.

You're just.

You're here more and you know the play is always designed around the story, so you're learning about something you might not have known.

Or, if you didn't know it, now you know more about it because you've acted it out.

If someone were to give music and drama camp like it's their first time they want to give it a try, why, like someone's telling them like you said, did did like your mom make you do it?

Or your family member?

If someone's like parent is trying to push them to do it and they're like I don't know if I want to, why?

Why would you tell them they should do it?

It's fun.

I know that sounds kind of boring, but it's really fun just to be here.

And it's also you're not at home, because I mean, if you're not doing anything, and why don't, I don't see why not?

And then you get here and it's it's really a good time.

You get to meet a whole bunch of new people, because I know when I first got here I didn't know a lot of people.

I was new to hope, so this was a good time for me to meet new people and have fun doing it.

And then I didn't even realize how much I had learned about like a Bible story until the end of it and then kind of it applied to my life outside of camp and it was good to see.

So we hope that you enjoyed today listening to the Mead Hope podcast and hearing from some of Hope's music and drama campers.

It was such a joy to get to talk with each one of them and hear their own perspectives on why they love engaging with music and art and dance and tech and drama as they also grow in their faith.

We hope that you have a really great rest of your week and that you will join us back here next week for another episode.

Until then, have a great day.

Thanks for being a part of the Hope community as we continue our conversations about faith and hope.

If you don't already, please join us for worship on Sundays or on demand.

You can learn more at meethopeorg or find us on socials at meethopechurch.