Schools
Gotta Cut Loose: Summer Camp to Produce Musical
Teen production is culmination of annual St. Louis Summer Players camp at Missouri Baptist University.
Sixty teenagers decked out in 80s garb and hairstyles are going Footloose this weekend at Missouri Baptist University.
The teens are part of a three-week musical theater camp that is hosted at Missouri Baptist each June and culminates in the production of a musical. This year’s show is Footloose The Musical, based on the 1984 movie starring Kevin Bacon.
Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Dale Williams Fine Arts Center at MBU. Tickets are $7 for students, $10 for adults and can be purchased at the door.
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The St. Louis Summer Players camp is for students 12 to 18 years old and attracts kids from schools throughout St. Louis County. They are given CDs of the music before they even show up for Day One. Then they spend several days auditioning for their parts.
“Everyone is cast,” organizer Rebecca Schene said. “We just try to place people where they will shine the most.”
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Many of the 66 students involved in Footloose have been coming to camp since it began four years ago. Some work on the technical aspects of the production, but most are on stage.
“It’s not just a summer camp,” Schene said. “The kids have to be passionate about it. You’ve got to really be dedicated to working on dance, working on singing. The day doesn’t just end at 2:45 when they go home.”
They have lines to learn, dance moves to perfect, voices to keep in tip-top shape. And less than three weeks to pull it all together.
But they manage to have fun along the way, too, Schene said.
“The friendships that we see building with kids from all over St. Louis is amazing,” she said.
Schene’s husband, Steve Schene, drama teacher at , is the director, and Joy Powell, director of musical theater at MBU, is the producer.
They work with a team of other adults, including four college interns, to teach lines and music, work out choreography, perfect the set and the lighting, and pull together costumes for dozens of actors and actresses.
Past productions have been Les Miserables, West Side Story and Sweeney Todd.
Footloose is the story of a big-city boy, Ren McCormack, who moves to a small town where dancing is banned.
Raymond Norlie, a senior at John F. Kennedy Catholic High School, plays Ren. Lily Kennedy, a sophomore at Ladue Horton Watkins High School, plays the minister’s daughter, Ariel Moore. Max Kramer, a senior from Kirkwood High School, plays the Rev. Shaw Moore.