HARRY POTTER WEEK

This week at the Playhouse is Harry Potter Week, one of the playhouses' "event camps." The kids range from 4th to 8th grade. All of the teachers and interns are in character for the whole week as either a professor or a ghost (I'm Nearly Headless Nick). The past two days have been split into two parts, mornings spent in their "dormitories" doing team building activities with specific crafts (Monday they decorated the dorm, today they started building models of Hogsmeade), and then using what they work on to create scenes in groups of five. After lunch they rotate for the remainder of the day to different Hogwarts "classes," where they do further theatrical, creative, and social activities. This week has been by far the easiest. This camp has been done for so many years that the teachers have it down to a science, allowing the interns to more freedom to work with the kids. In addition to the kids activities, the teachers and interns as their characters have a progressive story building that will be concluded as the week ends (Lupin getting more and more werewolf-like until he finally "turns" on Friday, at which time all of us "rescue" the kids and cure Lupin), which the kids have thus far enjoyed (they don't know what exactly will go down on Friday, surprise! don't get bitten!). It's been fun to see the level of involvement these kids put in, this week is focused more on fostering their creativity and imagination, which can be difficult with this particular age group.