SPRING BREAK KIDS CAMP
Cannon Beach Coaster Theatre
Loveable Monsters in Cannon Beach
By Annamaria Morrill
The Coaster Theatre Playhouse in Cannon Beach is celebrating their 45th anniversary this year. A very active community theater is providing many types of entertainment for the residents and visitors of all ages. Each season the theater performs many successful plays, musicals, concerts, seasonal events, and actor’s workshops. Many children have enjoyed acting camps that the theater has held each year during school breaks. The next camp is offered during the spring break, March 27-31 with a theme “Lovable Monsters”.
The theme, Loveable Monsters, is an inspiration from movies Shrek, Monsters Inc., and other monster stories. The campers will utilize monologue, songs, and movement to create their own story of the theme during the 5-day long camp. The children will present the play to their families and friends at the end of the week. The teachers are Patrick Lathrop and Kirk Valles, both with many years’ experience with teaching theater and musical performances.
A professional classical guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan, a special guest, will have a “Spirit of Music” workshop with the campers. He will also perform a concert of his New Lullaby Project with an opening performance by the campers. This concert will be on Wednesday, March 29th 1-3PM at the Coaster Theatre Playhouse.
Three camps each year
Each year the theater offers 2-3 camps for children ages 8 and up. Each camp focuses on acting, singing and dancing which all are common aspects of theatre arts. With encouraging and talented teachers, the children learn to improve in confidence and creativity as well as learn team work while developing a production of their own.
Last year the children learned about historical characters during Spring break camp in March, and during summer break the campers celebrated 1950s Rock’n Roll theme “Grease is the Word”. The winter camp’s theme was “Home for Holidays” with old fashioned Christmas songs and skits. The children learned about singing carols, acting out holiday characters, as well as festive yuletide-dancing. The summer camp this year will be during July 31-August 11 with a theme of “The Land of Oz”.
The camps are held at the historical community theater building, which is centrally located, and only couple of blocks from the beach. The Coaster Theatre Playhouse was founded in 1972 by Maurie Clark, who bought the building which had been operating as a skating rink since 1920s until 1950s. After major renovating the building became home for the Coaster Theatre. The theater is non-profit organization and continues the tradition of creating and sharing wonderful plays, musicals, and special performances each year. The theater is located on 108 N. Hemlock street.
There are scholarships available for the Kidz Camp. Contact Patrick Lathrop 503-436-0609 for application information
More information of the Kidz Camps, and season 2017 plays click here.
