“It was a lot of fun! I liked learning the dance and playing the Gingerbread Girl,” said theatre camp student Sydney Delay.
Students from several area schools participated in this year’s Three Rivers College Children’s Theatre Drama Camp.
The drama camp gives students a week of theatre instruction and the opportunity to learn and mingle with students from schools other than their own.
Jo Nell Seifert is the director of the camp, she was assisted this year by Laura Dowd and Mary Libla who choreographed the dance portion of the performance.
Seifert directed drama camp at Poplar Bluff High School from 1993-2015. She retired, but Three Rivers College offered to bring her on board to continue her passion.
“I am so very grateful to Dr. Wesley Payne for hiring me,” said Seifert.
During the performance students read skits titled “Pigs Can’t Fly” and “The Fungus That Ate My School” along with several other titles, followed by a dance routine to “Grease.”
Students were visibly excited to display their talents for family and friends who attended the Friday afternoon performance at TRC’s Tinnin Center.
This year’s camp was a success with 45 participating students.
Seifert said that students who attended the camp came not only from the Poplar Bluff area but from many of the surrounding areas such as Dexter, Bloomfield and Doniphan. Cooper Hornbeck, TRC student and former camp attendee, said that he has assisted with the drama camp for four years now and loves being a part of it.
When asked if he thought it would be something he would continue to do in the future since he just graduated from high school he said, “Oh yes, she’s (Seifert) not getting rid of me that easy.”
The camp consisted of a week of instruction from Seifert and those assisting her. Students spent an hour or two daily reading the skits and learning the choreography for the dance routine.
Seifert took a moment at the end of the program to thank everyone who assisted her from students to helpers, to those who drove to attend the performance she extended her appreciation.