In each two week session at Centauri Arts Camp, we have two festivals – one based on magic, fantasy and fun – the other based around the arts. Yesterday was our first big arts festival of the summer, in which campers chose arts disciplines and worked together collaboratively to mount a theatre festival in a single day. As always, it was a hugely engaging and moving event, with many campers taking on leadership roles for the first time. We had camper-choreographers, writers and directors. One group wrote and recorded a radio play. A group of actors, dancers and musicians worked together to create an original musical. Several campers learned about performance art, before creating an original performance art piece about changing seasons and lives. Our devised theatre group challenged their audience with an environmental theatre piece all about facing fear, and moving beyond it. One writer wrote an original comedy piece – a spoof on horror movies that was hilarious. Meanwhile, our ‘drama’ group staged a theatre piece about a group of high school students who built a time machine.

For many of our campers, Play in a Day is not only great fun and an exciting artistic challenge – it’s also an opportunity to explore important life skills. They work to a time limit, lead teams of other campers, communicate artistic objectives, problem solve throughout the day and have the satisfying experience of seeing their personal vision realised in front of audience.

In terms of the variety of final projects, this was one of the most exciting Play-in-a-Day festivals we have ever had. We celebrated with ice cream at the end of a busy day – and had a camp-wide sleep-in this morning.

Check out more photos here https://www.centauriartscamp.com/media-and-more/