The Segal Centre Academy summer camps go online
Aspiring junior thespians can stay busy, creative and safe this season, thanks to the Segal Centre for Performing Arts’s innovative online summer camps.
Running from June 29 to Aug. 17, the program is yet another of the institution’s creative responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, from live piano hours and lunch-time dance classes to interviews that reunited creative teams from past Segal productions. The camps have grown in popularity with each iteration and even though circumstances required some creative retooling this year, the Segal Centre has worked hard to provide the same meaningful and inspiring experience parents and children have come to expect — albeit digitally.
“When the theatre closed last spring, we had to go virtual with much of our programming, including the teen Academy’s production of Godspell,” said Lisa Rubin, the Segal Centre’s artistic and executive director. “It essentially went from play to film, becoming a work of art that left the families in tears. And received a congratulatory video clip from the show’s composer, Stephen Schwartz.”
Expressions of appreciation poured in from parents of the teens who starred in the video after it streamed this past June. Among them was Randall Alberts, whose son Jack, 13, was part of the cast. With the pandemic disrupting everyone’s lives, he feels it had an impact on participants that goes far beyond what anyone could expect.
“The decision to persevere and keep the production going was — at the risk of sounding cheesy — a beacon of hope,” Alberts wrote. “It gave the kids something to look forward to: connection with friends, a bit of structure in a chaotic day, a sense of normalcy. With so much negativity in the world right now, everything about it was right.”
That experience served as the guiding light in setting up programming for the summer workshops and camps, said Liana Wiener, director of the Segal Centre’s Academy and mother of two children, ages six and seven.
“I hear from parents that their kids really, really don’t want summer camp to be one more thing they miss out on now,” she said. “But because the summer routine is more relaxed, we offer two hours of structured activities each morning, leaving them with the rest of the day free for swimming, biking or whatever.”
Children who have completed Grades 1 to 11 (Secondary 5) may opt to either attend week-long summer camps or go à la carte, selecting from more than 50 different onehour workshops. For the latter, subjects range from acting and dance to percussion, and the unique programming and content change each week. Some, such as those that help kids hone their auditioning skills or voice-over techniques, require two separate one-hour sessions.
At the week-long camps, kids can look forward to logging on each morning, Monday to Friday. They will then join their peers via teleconference for two hours of interactive online programming to create individual or group projects.
“It’s quite an intensive session. But our highly creative teaching and production staff have already shown how quickly they can move a production from stage to video,” Wiener said. “And that includes some impressive video editing skills.”
Returning to the Segal Academy Camps this summer is a two-week Creation and Performance camp for teens finishing Grade 6 or entering Secondary 1-5. Guided by instructors, participants will write and star in an original musical. Week 1 is devoted to coming up with the story, writing the script and song lyrics, and casting. In Week 2, they go into production, culminating in a mini-musical production that, like Godspell before it, will be released on video.
“This camp is a variation on the program we offer during the regular school year,” Wiener said. “The shows the students create are amazing and imaginative because the teens are so invested in what they create.”
Camps and workshops will be offered via teleconferencing platform Zoom. Wiener said Academy students reported no connectivity issues in the past online session, whether they used a laptop, tablet or smartphone. Workshops are designed with the realization not everyone has a full dance studio or production workshop at home.
“Campers will need to find some open space, especially for the choreography classes,” she said. “And other workshops like mask or puppet-making do involve some materials, but we try to keep it to things usually found around the house.”
Registration for the weeks of July 13 and 20 began on June 29. Prices are $125 for the one-week camps, $250 for the two-week Teen Creation and Performance camp. À la carte workshops: $15 each. Information and registration at