education

Nettle Creek Players, an historic professional summer stock tent theatre, offered the “Young Actors Workshop” as part of its 2017-19 Summer Stock Theatre Seasons.  The day camp program was be held on the Opera House Stage in the Hagerstown History Museum, 96 ½ E. Main Street and in the Nettle Creek Players Tent on Main Street in Hagerstown, Indiana. Tuesday through Friday classes began at 10:00am and end at 3:00pm.  Students aged 10-17 participated in performances of “Master Cat: The Story of Puss in Boots” .   Tuition was $100 per student and payable with registration. Some scholarships were available for qualifying families. Registration was available online at www.thenettlecreekplayers.com or in person at The Hagerstown Library. 

The Nettle Creek Players Young Actors Workshop gives students hands-on experience working side-by-side with professional actors, teachers and directors as both students and professionals work toward the shared goal of producing a play.  The goals and outcomes include improvement in communications skills, self-confidence, vocabulary, teamwork and leadership abilities as well as the joy of participating in a live public performance.  During the workshop, students will spend half of each daily session learning basic theatre skills including theater games & warm-up exercises, character development, scene study, memorization, music & voice, dancing & movement, set & costume design and more.  The second half of each class is spent rehearsing the musical “Master Cat: The Story of Puss in Boots.”  At the end of each week of classes, students and teachers join to perform a fully staged and costumed version of “Master Cat: The Story of Puss in Boots” as part of the Nettle Creek Players Summer Stock Tent Theatre Season in a giant circus tent on Main Street in downtown Hagerstown.  The final showcase performances are ticketed events open to the public. 

Teachers for the workshop include the professional staff of visiting artists who have been hired regionally and from across the country to live in Hagerstown for the summer as they produce and perform the Nettle Creek Players Summer Stock Tent Theatre Season.  Leading the program are NCP Artistic Director, former Muncie Civic Executive Director and Monroe Central High School Drama Director Darrin Murrell and his wife, Western Kentucky University theatre professor Dr. Julie Lyn Barber.  Other company members and teachers include Ball State University theatre program graduates Katie Jones and Olivia Schaperjohn.

More information is available at info@nettlecreekplayers.com