French Woods Summer Camp Blog

The French Woods Theater Department will be better than ever in 2007.
The 2007 Show Calendar will make it’s official debut in the May Newsletter, but it is packed full of performance opportunities.

For 2007 we are currently in talks for a premier production of “The New Kid on the Block”, by John Forster (who also wrote “How to Eat Like a Child”). The playwright would be at camp intermittently through out rehearsals and would be involved in the production process. The show will be published and available through Samuel French early next year. We will keep you updated as we progress, but the show would be open to seven to eleven year olds.

We welcome Ken Schneidman to the computer lab, here’s a few words from him.

“In the weeks preceding the beginning of camp I will be setting up and maintaining the French Woods computer network. Once the campers arrive, I will be available to teach just about anything you can do on a Mac, from website building to podcasting and streaming media, photoshop and graphic design and just about anything else the campers want to learn to do (or do better and faster) on the computer.

Off-season I stay pretty busy as a graphic artist and Mac Tech. I love to create artwork for bands that gets used on various kinds of merchandise such as posters and tshirts as well as for promotional purposes. As a small town Apple specialist I service and teach Mac users in a 50 mile radius. This offers me the opportunity to work in many different environments and with all kinds of people, mostly involved in the creative arts.”

Last summer was a great success, as our campers made some of the best short films camp has ever seen. This summer we’re going to do more
films, and they’ll be even better than last year’s. With our kids turning out such strong work, French Woods Short Films are going to be a big hit at film festivals across the country.

Hello! I’m Andrea and I’ll be working in the voice department this summer. This will be my 4th time at camp and I’m looking forward to another great summer. I’m from Boston, MA where I recently received a MM in vocal pedagogy from New England Conservatory. This year I also appeared with the Cantata Singers (Boston) and the Granite State Opera (Portsmith, NH). My plan for the summer is to meet as many campers as possible in the voice studio this summer. Come and try it out… we can help you with all sorts of singing issues like, learning a new song, feeling more confident in your singing, singing more in tune, or just trying out your material in front of someone. So, sign up for voice class! We look forward to meeting you.

Mike & Jo Whitney are thrilled to be a part of the French Wood’s Rock Shop this summer. As singer/songwriters and co-authors of “I Know It’s Only Rock N’ Roll but I Write It”, they enjoy teaching youth songwriting and live performance workshops. These workshops are high energy and geared for ages 7-17. Some of the activities that will be offered this summer will be:

• Songwriting – using fun and easy activities as tools that are perfect for all levels of writing.
• Stagecraft- learning the art of stage presence that will help you to perform with confidence.
• Singing rock- voice protection, ear training, warm ups, phrasing of lyrics.
• Guitar- exercises & dexterity training, chord shapes, lead & rhythm techniques for all styles of music.
• Live Performance- overcoming stage fright, how to join a band, bantering with your audience.
  And much more…

We’re planning some special events for the music department this summer:

The summer of 2007 has many new plans in store. Yamaha artist James Adler will return to the French Woods stage to perform the Grieg piano concerto.

During our 3rd session we will be host to members of the New York Philharmonic. They will also appear on our stage in a joint performance with us. In addition, master classes with the Graham Ashton brass ensemble and a flute seminar with Laurel Zucker are also in the works.

This blog is generally about summer camping and specifically about the French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts