Bones, the 2008 summer camp adventure

by Cherry Fraser

"The toe bone connected to the foot bone, the foot bone connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone connected to the..........." No, this is not Anatomy 101, but the, "toe-tapping,foot-stomping, knee-slapping, hip-swinging, hand clapping" musical, BONES by Janet Gardner.

The campers in the Music and Drama camp performed this musical for family and friends at the end of the week. Getting to that point was a lot of work - and a lot of fun!

We began on Monday morning with singing and reading 'auditions'. During lunch, while the campers were playing outside under the watchful eyes of Shannon and Rebekka, Catherine Gardner and I were allotting roles. Not an easy task! A read-through of the musical followed so that everyone knew the storyline.

The next four days were busy! The campers had to learn all the songs and memorize their lines. Sounds easy? Now put everyone on stage and ask them to say their lines and sing the songs while moving around! At the same time remember to speak slowly and clearly, and never turn your back to the audience. "Speak to the clock on the back wall" was a phrase that was heard a lot!

In between music rehearsals and staging we also had to paint three backdrops, make bones and other props and costumes. Thank goodness for double sided tape! For a time Catherine and I despaired that everything would come together in time - but it did - and the end result was magnificent. We played to a packed house of siblings, parents, grandparents and other assorted family members.

After eveyone had departed and Susan, Catherine and I had cleaned up we took a big breath and got ready to do it all again in two weeks with a new set of campers.