By REID TUCKER
Summer camp usually means horseback riding and campfires, but it was more like stagecraft and drama lessons for DeFuniak Springs students participating in the Kamp Kellywamba performance art program.
Kamp Kellywamba, a product of the Mattie Kelly Art Foundation’s (MKAF) art education outreach program All Kinds of Art, aims to get Okaloosa and Walton County kids interested and engaged in acting, dance, set design and other aspects of theatre production. The weeklong arts-centric day camp took place at two locations from mid-July on, first at Destin Middle School and wrapping up at the Chautauqua Center in DeFuniak Springs on the 31st. Though Kamp Kellywamba has long been a fixture in Okaloosa County, the local angle is a first in the 15-year history of the program, and that is all part of the plan to increase MKAF’s exposure throughout the Panhandle, said the organization’s education director, Melanie Moore.
“This is a very important moment our (organization’s) history,” Moore said. “We’re invigorating our presence in Walton County, and bringing camps like this to the DeFuniak Springs area are a big part of that.”
The resulting performance from the 11 DeFuniak Springs students in the program was invigorating indeed, as they put on quite the show for a packed classroom of family, friends and fans on July 31. This year’s Kamp Kellywamba play had a “Fabulous Fifties” theme and the production played it to the hilt, with all the requisite trappings of a period high school musical (think “Grease,” but with themes adjusted for middle school-aged thespians) like hot rods, sock-hops and poodle skirts. The kids in the program had a hand in every aspect of the play from decorating and building the set to memorizing lines and dance routines – all in the span of five days.
Student input was also evident in the musical numbers, which included ‘50s staples like Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba” and “Rockin’ Robin,” but also a few original pieces written by Darla Briganti, who also wrote the script. Briganti said the students were encouraged to adjust their lines and dance steps to suit their strengths as performers, as learning how to do this within the context of a unified theme is all part of the creative process. Owing to the individual differences of the students involved, each Kamp Kellywamba production is different, she said.
“Each cast has its own collective personality, so it’s neat to see how each group of students made the roles their own even though they both worked within the same theme,” Briganti said.
Despite the hard work involved in putting on the play, the students were universally enthusiastic about their time at the camp, but perhaps none more so than Alex Bradshaw, 11. Bradshaw was one of the three leather-jacket wearing “greasers” in the play, and, if his performance was any indication, he may be well on his way to perfecting method acting at an early age. Even after he and the rest of his fellow players took their final bows, Bradshaw wasn’t quite out of character as he discussed with practiced tough-guy nonchalance all the different disciplines he and the others had to master before putting on the play.
“I guess you could say it was a lot of fun learning about all the different parts of putting a show together,” he said, popping the lapels on his jacket. “It’s not a bad way to spend one of the last weeks of summer break anyway.”
