Popular Summer Camp Opens Registration In McLean

From Traveling Players: Traveling Players Ensemble, known for its innovative summer theatre camps and its selection by the National Endowment for the Arts as on of 25 nationally-recognized Summer School in the Arts, has opened registration for its 2018 summer camp.

Traveling Players Ensemble is an educational theatre company whose mission is to bring great theatre into the great outdoors. Founded in 2003, it has grown from a summer camp of 18 campers to a year-round institution serving over 700 students a year.

The summer camp has been in residence at The Madeira School since 2007.

Traveling Players distinguishes itself with its focus on outdoor theatre and ensemble process, as well as its expert instructors. It has been invited to perform at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, Colonial Williamsburg, Shenandoah National Park, Reston's Multicultural Festival, and the International Children's Festival at Wolf Trap, as well as over 60 other venues throughout Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC.
The summer camp was voted #1 camp in 2017 and 2018 by Northern Virginia Magazine.

The core of the company remains its summer day camp for current 3rd through 12th graders, where they work in small ensembles (up to 13 performers) to rehearse a play under the direction of experienced theatre professionals.

Tuition includes daily bus transportation, picking up in Bailey's Crossroads, Arlington, Falls Church, McLean, Reston, Vienna, Sterling, Bethesda, Silver Spring and Washington, DC.

This summer's ensembles will perform The Bourgeois Gentleman and Sganarelle by Moliere, Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost and Merry Wives of Windsor, a Commedia dell'Arte adaptation of Sleeping Beauty, and Perseus & the Rock Star and The Monkey King, two original plays by Judy White based on Greek and Chinese mythology. In addition, current 3rd - 5th graders can register for a one-week Acting Sampler Camp, getting a small taste of Shakespeare, improv, and stage combat.

The campers spend most of their days outdoors, camping out once a week at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston, VA. Intensive training in Shakespeare, Moliere, Mythology, and Commedia dell'Arte, combined with outdoor skills, low ropes and Leave-No-Trace camping ethics, creates an experience that is unique in the world of theatre programs.

In the final week of each session, campers tour their show by bus, giving them the experience of wandering entertainers who carry their dinner, tent and props in their trusty pack.

Camp begins on June 18th and runs through August 10th. A regular session is 4 weeks long. The camp also offers 1- and 2-week sessions for younger campers, and extended sessions up to 7 weeks for older campers.
8th to 12th graders looking for advanced training can audition for the camp's advanced Troupes on the extended weekends of January 14th/15th and February 18th/19th.

The camper-to-counselor ratio is 4:1. Need-based scholarships are available for all programs.
For more information, call 703-987-1712, email jeharrison@travelingplayers.org, or visit www.travelingplayers.org

Photo courtesy of Traveling Players