Park University to Host Summer Coterie Theatre Classes | Events

Children will take the stage this summer when Park University partners with the Coterie Theatre to offer drama and acting classes at the University’s Parkville Campus. Week-long summer camps for children entering kindergarten through 12th grade are scheduled for June 6 through June 24.

This is the first time the Coterie School for Theatre Exploration will partner with Park to offer summer classes. In the Coterie’s classes, professional teaching artists use games, improvisations, acting exercises and scene work to help young actors discover what it means to respond truthfully and believably. In drama classes for younger students, actors flex their imaginations through games, visual arts, music and improvisation.

Classes offered at Park include:

• Acting: Fundamentals — 9 a.m. to noon, Monday, June 6, to Friday, June 10, for students in fourth through seventh grades. Students learn how to work as an ensemble as they build skills in character creation, improvisation, concentration, movement, voice and imagination.

• This is Not a Box! — 9 a.m. to noon, Monday, June 13, to Friday, June 17, for students in kindergarten and first grade. The class emphasizes collaboration, listening, sequencing and imagination.

• Acting: Techniques — 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday, June 13, to Friday, June 17, for students in eighth through 12th grades. Young actors learn to overcome obstacles, pursue objectives and explore given circumstances through acting exercises and non-scripted scenes.

• Circus Hilarious — 9 a.m. to noon Monday, June 20, to Friday, June 24, for students in second and third grades. The teaching artist will work with students to use their bodies, faces and voices to create hilarious improvisations.

• Pop Musicals: Oz Edition —12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday, June 20, to Friday, June 24, for students in fifth through 10th grades. Students will perform show-stoppers from the Coterie’s summer musical The Wiz, the Broadway hit Wicked and the classic The Wizard of Oz. Students will spend the week exploring character, learning choreography and singing as an ensemble under the direction of a professional musical theater actor and accompanist.

Each session is $120 per person, except for Pop Musicals, which is $135 per person. Suggested enrollment is two or more weeks in advance of the first class date. A 10 percent discount is available for participants taking multiple classes and siblings. All students taking a Coterie class receive a complimentary pass to a Coterie Theatre performance.

For questions regarding class content and age appropriateness, contact Coterie Education Director Meghann Henry at (816) 474-6785, ext. 231. To register for classes, contact Class Registrar Annette Filippi at (816) 474-4241. Registration forms and complete class descriptions are available at www.coterietheatre.org.