About the GBTC Summer Theatre Camps !

The goals of the camp program

Our goal at Great Big Theatre Company is to provide a summer camp program that is rewarding, enriching and challenging; that is focused on encouraging participation, and that helps kids develop and try out new skills and capabilites. The program is aimed at growth in self-confidence and self-esteem. It teaches kids to work creatively, individually as well as in groups. At the same time, it provides a place and environment where kids can have fun.

Who we are

Great Big Theatre Company is a non-profit and registered charity; our focus is children’s theatre. We offer camps, classes, mainstage and travelling productions, afterschool programs and in-school workshops.

The benefits of drama education for kids

All kids can benefit from drama / acting experience, whether intending to eventually pursue a professional career in acting or simply for the joy of it.

The benefits for kids include: increased self-confidence; imagination; empathy; enhanced capacities for cooperation / collaboration; better concentration and “focus”; better communication skills; problem-solving skills: emotional outlet; relaxation; self-discipline; trust; physical fitness; memory; social awareness; aesthetic appreciation; and of course, fun. This inventory of benefits comes from: The Drama Education Network.

Our summer camps

We have been offering our theatre camp programs since 1994; thousands of kids and families from across the GTA and southwest Ontario have participated, and many kids have gone on to shine, some of them on stages, on TV and in films, and many more in their schoolwork and in local community groups and activities, through the skills and confidence our programs have helped them to develop.

What happens at camp

Each camp is one week in length; each week there is new content, including new plays and musical numbers, so that campers who register for more than one week of camp will have new and challenging experiences in each of the camp weeks. Many of our summer campers register for multiple weeks during the summer.

Campers will work together in groups, mostly within their own age groups but also at times across age levels. One goal is to work toward an end-of-week presentation, which is performed on Friday afternoons for an audience of parents, friends and relatives. The kids help with selecting costumes and creating sets. Costumes and props are kept simple and are provided at the camp. To encourage equal participation by all, each age group does its own part of the end-of-week show. Younger and older campers will work on their own separate plays. The final performance also involves more than the plays, including at least one musical number, with group vocals and simple choreography.

It’s an exciting experience and one that develops in the kids a sense of teamwork and cooperation, as the week progresses and new elements of the final performance are created, polished and fit into place. Each group works with materials and content that are age-appropriate, challenging and stimulating for their own skill levels and learning styles.

The program is quite structured; campers get an introduction to many aspects of theatre. They will learn about voice, movement, working with scripts, developing characters, and using the whole body in their involvement with a role and a character. Kids will learn something about stage movement, blocking, voice projection and character development.

Besides the preparations for the performance, there is a lot more happening, including:

Games: most of them theatre-focused, often involving mime and / or improvisation, which develop in the kids skills in such areas as cooperation, movement and creative imagination.

Stagecraft: props, sets, backdrops and costume items are worked on by the kids themselves, individually and in groups.

Outdoor activities: non-competitive games and sports contribute toward getting creative energies flowing as well as developing social cohesion and cooperative skills.

Choral pieces, “raps”, musical numbers, video, choreography, voice, role-playing, storytelling and forms of imaginative play are all part of the creative mix.

While the kids learn to work with scripted materials and stories, they also have opportunities to develop and contribute their own creative content.

We foster at all times an open, cooperative, supportive and non-competitive environment, in which every child has an opportunity to participate fully and equally.

Our camp staff

The camp staff is an important part of making any camp experience memorable. We are extremely selective with our counselor staff and very proud of the high quality of the individuals we select to work with our program and the level of instruction we provide. We look for individuals with backgrounds in acting, drama, music and dance, as well as experience and qualifications in working with children; however, we also place a high value on personal qualities: organization, enthusiasm, energy, warmth, friendliness, dedication, and a special inspirational quality that allows staff to reach a child and bring out the best qualities in him or her.

All of our staff have college / university background; the camper-staff ratio is approximately 7:1 or 8:1, ensuring that each camper has a great deal of individual attention and instruction during the week.

What else do you need to know ?

Ages: The camp program is for ages 6 to 14. No previous acting / drama experience is necessary. For the youngest campers, we ask that children be at least six years old at the date of the camp.

Camp hours: Hours are 8:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday to Friday, with extended hours also available.

Extended hours: We offer before and after care from 7:30 am to 8:30 am and 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm. The additional cost is $ 5 per hour / per child / per day, in half-hour increments. e.g. 8:00 am to 8:30 am Monday to Friday would be $ 12.50 per week additional, for one child. You can register for extended hours online at the same time as you are entering the camp registration. We recommend registering for extended hours as early as possible, so as to ensure that staff can be available to accommodate your schedule.

Camp locations: We have 45 locations, with different weeks of camps offered at different locations. The full list of dates and locations is available elsewhere on the Web site (under Camp Schedules)

The camp day: Activity periods are generally scheduled for thirty-minute to forty-five minute intervals, with the schedule including rehearsals, games, crafts, and outdoor activities. There is a 30-minute break for lunch, followed by outdoor activities (weather permitting); 15-minute snack breaks are scheduled for morning and afternoon. The day begins with warmup activities and ends with cool-down games and programs; we recommend that all children arrive on time and stay for the full day, to ensure that they will be fully integrated with the group and well prepared for the end-of-week performance.

Boy / girl ratio: We have given particular attention to designing a camp program that is fun, appropriate and challenging for both boys and girls. Typically, there is a good mixture of boys and girls at each camp, although the numbers can of course vary from week to week.

What play will the kids be working on? Typically, we work with a large number of different scripts and musical numbers, based on level of challenge, age-appropriateness, and number of roles for different age groups. We will select scripts and musical numbers only at the start of the camp, based on the mixture of ages and interest levels, the ratio of boys and girls, and the level of experience.

Are they any additional charges ?: The camp registration fee includes everything, including any applicable taxes. Receipts are issued for income-tax purposes and are sent by e-mail (wherever possible) at the time of registration. The only added charges are for a camp t-shirt (optional) and extended hours.

Do they need to bring anything along ? Just bring themselves, and a spirit of fun, cooperation and openness. Wear comfortable clothes for moving around in. If you have props, costume items, etc. at home that you are willing to allow the kids to bring in for the performance, that is helpful, but it is entirely optional (and make sure to pick up anything the kids have brought in after the show !)

At a few of our locations, we offer swimming as a camp activity, for two hours, once during the camp week. There may be a small additional charge for this ($ 2.00 or thereabouts). If this is scheduled for the camp week, parents will be notified of it early and will have the option to opt in or out of the activity. We only offer this program through community pools that are well supervised and lifeguarded and have their own safety policies in place. At the moment (for 2011), it is likely that the only location at which this will be offered is Toronto / Etobicoke (the Richview United location).

Special needs: We have had great success integrating campers with a wide variety of special needs into our programs. These include kids with both mental and physical challenges, including reduced mobility and sensory function, Down’s syndrome, autism, Asperger’s syndrome, and other conditions. We do not, unfortunately, have the resources to provide individualized support staff, and where children are accustomed to working with individual support workers at school and in other environments, we recommend parents to make arrangements, where they can, for such supports at camp. Arrangements for accessibility may vary from site to site and will depend on the availability of such facilities at the particular locations at which the campers are offered. In all cases, we strongly recommend discussing with us in the advance the suitability of the camp program for the particular needs of any individual child, and whether we would be able to accommodate those needs.

Lunch / snacks: Campers bring their own lunches and snacks along with them. Parents should take into account that refrigerators / microwaves will generally not be available. Our policy is that the camp is a peanut-free environment; parents should be aware of this in preparing lunches and snacks. Since most of our locations are in use for other functions and by other groups, we generally cannot guarantee that the facility itself will be peanut-free or nut-free, although some facilities may have those policies in place.

Safety policy / First aid / CPR: We operate with clearly defined safety policies in which all of our staff are trained. All our staff have criminal record checks and there will be at least one counselor at each site with full CPR / first aid certification.

Leadership training / Volunteering: In addition to regular staff, we also encourage participation, on a volunteer basis, of qualified students from local secondary schools, as well as older students who have graduated from our camp programs and / or classes and are interested in eventually becoming part of our camp staff. Send us an inquiry at onstage@gbtc.com if you would like to be part of the camps as a volunteer.

Registration: Registration facilities are available on our Web site. The easiest and quickest way to register (and also the most secure) is online, using Visa or Mastercard. We use the online registration services of Thriva.com's secure server. When you register online, you will receive your receipt and confirmation immediately. Followup e-mails with final details of camp schedule, etc. will be sent during the week preceding the camp. If questions arise during the interim, we can always be reached via e-mail or on our toll-free number (noted below).

We anticipate that most of our camps will be filled to capacity this summer; so please register early to ensure a place.

For more ...

For parents’ responses to our camp evaluation questionnaires, as completed by parents of camp attendees since 2006, please see the Camp Evaluations tab on our Web site menu.

Please call us if you have additional questions you need to ask: our toll-free number is 1-866-864-4282 (905-628-9747 if you are in Hamilton or the surrounding area).

e-mail for more information !