By Holly Bedard
Editor

Kelly Gallagher rehearses a song as music director Kenney Green plays the piano. (Photos by Bruce Preston)

Summer camp doesn’t have to mean sunburns and mosquito bites. The Palace Youth Theatre Summer Camp is proof.

For two weeks, kids learn to act, sing and dance, which culminates in a mini-production for parents at the end of the camp.

And it’s certainly picking up speed. Session 4, which ends Friday, Aug. 25, is a complete sell-out ­ and then some.

The camps started out offering spots for 45 kids. The last session for this year ended up with more than 60.

“Parents love it. Some kids are not into the sports some camps do,” said Rebecca Peterson, The Palace Theatre’s marketing director. “Here they get to be a lot more creative.”

The day is separated into five class periods or blocks. This is where campers learn the basics of acting, singing and dancing. Starting this summer, kids will also have classes in stage makeup, script writing, theater tech and stage combat. In addition, all kids work on props, costumes and sets.

The script for the show is set before the camp begins, said Wally Calderon, The Palace Youth Theatre’s artistic director, who runs the camp program. This gives him the chance to make sure each student has lines and is involved in two of the songs.

Campers get the script the first day. This session’s production is “Tulsa: The Musical,” a Fosse-inspired, wild, wild West review.

The Session 3 performance, “The Case of the Amazing Escaping Elephants,” drew more than 250 parents, friends and families.

This may sound a little intimidating to someone who has no experience in theater, but Calderon said the campers are in good hands.

“Older students love the opportunity to take new ones on and show them what they need to know,” he said. “They set extremely good examples, and they are good at recognizing where attention is needed. The leadership they take on is really unique.”

While this is Calderon’s first summer directing the camp, he’s not new to the theater. He came to The Palace over a year ago as an actor. His first project was to assist the director with the teen program.

“I enjoyed working with the kids and teens. It was easy for me to do. I felt like it was a good fit for me, and the camp came with that,” he said of his current position with the theater.

And it seems like there’s more going on at The Palace every day. Calderon said on a recent night there were more than 150 performers at the theater.

“There were 60 on stage for the youth productions, 60 rehearsing for ‘The Music Man’ and 30 teens upstairs rehearsing for the teen company,” he said. “It was hectic, but I couldn’t help but be excited by it.”

But what happens when Calderon and his staff run into a camper who maybe doesn’t yet share that enthusiasm for theater? Not a problem.

Calderon said he didn’t grow up as a theater person, either. He grew up as an athlete. To handle a situation like this, he said it is important to talk with the camper about things he or she is interested in.

There have been some campers who were not as interested in theater when they started, but give quite a surprise toward the end.

“When we come to the performance, we see they are loving it and they’ve got a big smile,” Calderon said.

As the sessions come and go, Calderon is starting to see some familiar faces. That’s why he said it’s important to keep changing things up. Plus, with so much going on at each session, there’s always something new.

“We get a lot of returning campers,” he said. “There’s such a wide variety of things … we find a way for everyone to enjoy.”

And while expansion of the camp is always a possibility, he and his staff are constantly brainstorming ideas of different things to do as far as classes, workshops and youth programs.

A thumbs-up from parents is a step in the right direction. Calderon said he has received a lot of great responses about the camp.

“We like to get them involved as well,” he said. “The more you can do that, the more they appreciate it.”

Some parents have told Calderon they look forward to the school year to see positive changes in their children take shape.

Ultimately, though, the summer camp program is all about having a good time.

“Our goal is not about the product, it’s about the process. We want to be a fun and relaxed environment with a lot of laughing and a lot of games,” Calderon said. “In the end they are smiling all the time, and that’s what it is all about.”

For more information, call The Palace Theatre, 80 Hanover St., at 668-5588 or visit www.palacetheatre.org.