Masquers camp hits the high – and hilarious – seas

SOAP LAKE — Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of soda pop! 

The Soap Lake Masquers Summer Youth Theater Camp will put on “Captain Bree and her Lady Pirates” next week.

“It's a story about a band of female pirates,” said director Clifford Bresee. “They capture a ship, and they are disappointed to find there's there's no loot on the ship. What ensues is mostly just silly hilarity, but also a little bit of self-discovery.”

This is Bressee’s third time directing the Summer Youth Theater Camp, which has been going since about 2017, he said. 

“We have different directors that will do it different years,” he said. “I always do musicals, because kids like to sing and they pick up music easily. They've got the music and the lines; we provide the stage and the costumes.”

The camp is for ages 8-15, according to the Masquers’ website, and runs July 22-26. The budding thespians start on Monday and spend four hours a day for five days memorizing their lines, rehearsing their songs and learning their way around a theater. When Friday evening rolls around, they’ll stage a complete performance.

Bressee doesn’t do the whole thing alone, of course. He’s got a team of about eight people, including a choreographer, a music director and a stagehand, to ensure campers get full exposure to the theater.

“ And so it gives them a really cool stage experience,” he said. “A group of kids might be off with the choreographer, while one group is up on stage, working a scene and their lines, and another group of kids is up with the music director, learning the next song.”

The program can take up to 35 kids, Bressee said, and needs a minimum of 21. He was fairly sure at least that many had signed up as of Wednesday, but there were still spaces open for those who wanted to give it a go.

The play is written in such a way that actors of different ages and abilities can all have a go. The titular Captain Bree has 143 lines, according to the script, whereas Thomas the cabin boy has eight and the cook has only five, delivered in a “Swedish accent as heavy as his meatballs.”

 “In the first couple of hours Monday morning, we’ll identify the kids that we think will be able to handle memorizing a lot of lines, and put them in those roles,” Bressee said. “(For) the little-little ones, or those who are less adept that way, (there are) different ensemble roles where kids can do things together and just have lots of movement.”

The things the campers learn during their week with the Masquers can stick with them for a lifetime, Bressee said.

“One of the most recent (camps), a parent was telling me, ‘The Summer Youth Theater changed my kid,’” he said. “She was struggling in school and then she came back and her teachers are (saying) ‘Where’d this girl come from? She's so much more confident.’ So beyond them having a fun week, and it being a good show at the end of the week … every year, for a certain number of kids, this has a really significant positive impact on them.”

Joel Martin may be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.

    The Masquers Summer Youth Camp is designed to appeal to different ages and personalities. Director Clifford Bressee said he also likes to pick plays with an element of fancy to them. One year the play was about superheroes; this year’s is a pirate musical.
  

    Students in the Masquers Summer Youth Program get a chance to learn the ropes of a theater, and maybe a little something about themselves as well.