Beginning each day with a core subject, students get an in-depth concentration on a genre of their choice. Then they explore by learning about other art forms in their other three classes, seeing how the different arts interconnect.

Each afternoon, the core artist faculty show and talk about the work they do. At the end of the week, students share their creative experiments with the community in a student showcase performance.

2024 Class Descriptions

Giant Puppets — Margie McDonald
Bring Giants to life with you inside. Students will create large puppets
using simple materials such as cardboard, wire, fabric, sticks and tape.
You will learn to put cardboard together use a sewing awl and hot glue.
The final product can be based on something that exists such as animals or is fabricated from your imagination. The Giants come to life on stage for Friday’s Student Showcase.

Caribbean Steel Pan Band — Angie Tabor
This course takes students through a fun, high-energy, hands-on musical journey tracing the roots of the steel pans in Trinidad & Tobago. Students will explore the traditional music created by a determined youth culture, who, in spite of many obstacles, continued to find ways to make their music. Instruments will include Tamboo Bamboo, found metal objects, and authentic steel pans!

Comics and Worldbuilding — Taylor Dow
How can collaborative world-building techniques from tabletop role-playing games help us make comics in community? This class will focus on building your narrative and collaborative art skills to create a host of memorable settings and characters in a living, thriving world. Students will begin this class by drawing a massive, continuous map. As the week progresses, we will create comics that add details to our world-map, zooming in on individual cities, habitats, legends, characters, and forbidden places. The week concludes with an art show, allowing attendees to explore the landscape of our collective imagination.

Theater Creation — Marisol Rosa-Shapiro
Explore a variety of theatrical means for telling stories. Our emphasis will be on playful exploration that employs the poetic body, voice, and imagination to create brand new, collaborative works of theater. Participants will wear a variety of creative hats, including actor, director, and writer. All levels of experience welcome and encouraged!

West African Dance — Etienne Cakpo
Learn basic dance moves and drum rhythms from the Benin-Ghana coastal region of West Africa. This class is appropriate for boys and girls of all experience levels. The dances have graceful and strong movements that require undulation of the back and bending of the knees. Dances integrate traditional, social and spiritual dances as well as modern movements commonly found across West African countries.

Spoken Word Poetry — Sara Brickman
Everyone already has everything they need to write a poem. We’ll begin by writing poems that explore our personal experiences, and find our voices and the confidence to perform. We’ll look at different types of poems, and engage with theater and performance exercises to learn the skills to bring our writing to life through performance. We’ll study gestures, vocal tone, attitude, pacing, and connecting with an audience as we build towards our final sharing day.

What to Bring & What Not to Bring
Cell phones and electronic devices are not allowed at Centrum Youth Programs. In case of emergency, Centrum's program manager and staff carry phones and will notify you as soon as possible. You may leave a message for your student at any time with Program Manager Alyssa de Leon (360) 385-3102 x120. You will receive contact information in an email prior to the start of the program.

Lunch is provided. The safety and comfort of your children is our highest priority. Meals at Fort Worden State Park feature locally-grown, organically-produced food prepared to the highest standards at the Fort Worden Commons.

If you have any more questions about Tales, Texts, and Theater, please contact Alyssa de Leon at 360-385-3102, x120, or adeleon@centrum (dot) org.

Find more answers - Centrum FAQs