DM Playhouse Announces Summer Camps

Summer is almost here! The Des Moines Community Playhouse is offering students from kindergarten through high school more than 40 different classes and camps to fill the long summer days and keep their minds active. For a complete list of classes and registration, visit dmplayhouse.com.

Theatre arts education at the Playhouse provides students with the opportunity to explore, create, imagine, and express themselves, all within a safe, nurturing environment. Every class at the Playhouse is unique and led by the theatre's professional teaching artists.

Most camps for younger students, grades K-2, are focused on creative dramatics. Creative drama sparks children's natural abilities to become the characters they hear about in the books they love. These camps are literature-based and designed to foster listening and cooperative skills as well as self-esteem and individual expression. In June's Scene Stealers class, students will act out scenes from favorites like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlotte's Web, and The Giver to name a few. In July, elementary students can learn theatre skills and story dramatization in the Playhouse Players classes where they will read and then act Frankencrayon and The Land of Stories. Superhero fans should sign up for Superhuman Showdown class.

Classes for students grades 3-12 take actors through a more disciplined process: Auditioning, rehearsing, and performing a play to learn how to polish skills in a dynamic, challenging environment. Broadway Stars students will present the fur-raising adventure Disney's 101 Dalmatians KIDS while Performance Academy students will spend two weeks perfecting Disney's Mary Poppins Jr.

The Playhouse is one of the oldest and largest community theatres in the US. Located at the 42nd Street exit of I-235, the theatre has presented a full season of shows since 1919 and also offers a wide variety of educational experiences including classes for ages 4 to adult, theatre trips to New York, and volunteer opportunities onstage and backstage.

For more information on summer theatre camps and other Playhouse educational offerings, contact the Playhouse education department at 515-974-5365.