Lights, Camera, Action!

There’s an old song which goes, “You Ought to be in Pictures, You Can be a Star.”  I think that’s how it goes.  I could be wrong.  My memory is fuzzy sometimes, especially when it comes to a song I haven’t heard in several decades.

This week’s mantra has been “Lights, Camera, Action!”  Nothing is more exciting than being in a show.  We had a ton of shows this week.  By my count, we had a total of sixteen “shows” this week.  Each group acted out either a scene from a movie or they sang a song from a movie.

Of course the hardest part for each group was finding time to rehearse.  Somehow, practice time was procured.  Of course, for most groups it wasn’t enough to have a scene ready to go – they also needed props and costumes to add an extra special touch to the production.

What I enjoyed was how campers got into the spirit of putting on a show.  When the groups went on stage, they were up there to perform, not stand around.  We had campers acting like animals from the jungle "The Lion King"; toys from “Toy Story"; monsters from “Monsters Inc."; Luke and Darth Vader from “Star Wars” and "Harry Potter" characters.  We had re-enactments of two dance numbers from “Grease.”  We were inspired by the chant from “Remember the Titans.”  The scene from “Finding Nemo” really brought a smile to our faces!

But the all time show stopper has to go to the Minis.  On Friday, they acted out a ballroom scene from “Beauty and the Beast”.  The stage was covered with pairs of minis swaying to ballroom music, except for one boy who was standing alone in the middle of the stage.  From a door in the back came a camper dressed as the beast.  Beast and boy stood center stage, then from the back of the Dance Barn, weaving her way through the crowd, was Belle.  When Belle got to the stage, the Beast bowed, Belle curtsied, and then they danced!  But don’t feel sorry for the boy left standing.  His little sister ran on stage and they started dancing.  I don’t know what was louder,  the clapping or everyone going “awwwww.”

Of course the minis won the first ever Uncle Carter Acting Award.  As one proud mini held the award aloft, the other minis waved to the crowd.  They may be only four or five years of age, but they knew they’d hit a home run!  I need to say there were many home run hits on our stage this week.  But our minis with, Miss Chloe’s direction, hit the grand slam!

 -- Joe Ray