Arla Ralston Contributing Writer The Pocahontas Opera House has cancelled the summer theater camp scheduled for August 2-7, 2021 at Stillwell Park. The camp was cancelled because too few students signed up to make offering the camp feasible. “We’re sorry to have to cancel this year’s camp,” Opera House Operations Manager Brynn Kusic said. “We got off to a late start because we weren’t sure what the COVID guidelines would allow us to do. By that time many families had already made other plans.” The Opera House remains committed to providing youth programming and is looking at other options for getting local elementary and middle school students involved in the theater. “We hope to bring in guest artists for workshops in theater arts such as puppetry, stage movement or dance,” Kusic said. “These are still in the planning stages, so I guess I would tell kids to stay tuned, there’s more to come.” For the summer of 2022, the Opera House plans to bring back the immensely popular Missoula Theater Company for a week-long, full day camp. The professional theater company out of Missoula, Montana, will come to town with the script, songs, sets, costumes, props—everything but the actors—for a full-scale production. Local volunteers, under the direction of Charlie Maghee Hughes, will provide additional classes in acting, set building, movement and other theater arts. “Next year will be better than ever,” Kusic said. “We can’t wait to get our kids back up on the stage at the Opera House.”
