South Carolina Children's Theatre summer camps: Hogwarts, Avengers Academy, Spykids, improv

As the 2022-23 season at the South Carolina Children’s Theatre draws to a close, the staff is getting ready for summer. Not summer break. Summer camps.

The names of the camps reveal both the fun and the lessons of stagecraft: Avengers Academy, Hogwarts, Superkids & Spykids … Improv Bootcamp … Stage Crew Olympics, Prop Design and Construction.

Last summer, more than 1,100 children and teenagers – ages 4 to 18 – took part in weeklong camps from June through August at the striking, modern and spacious theater building at 153 Augusta St. in Greenville.

“We were never able to serve this many students until we moved here to this beautiful space,” says Matt Giles, who became Artistic Director in the spring of 2020, as the building was being finished and COVID-19 was closing theaters.

Giles was recruited by Executive Director Debbie Bell, who worked at the theater for 34 years before retiring in October. She and the Board of Directors raised $14 million to construct the building – the theater’s first true home since its founding in 1987.

“By the end of the week, the kids in camp feel like this space is theirs. They own it. They know where the restrooms are and how to turn the lights on and off. They move through the building with confidence and joy,” Giles says.

The staff wants young people to feel like they can be themselves, make new friends, and explore their ideas and creativity, he says.

Watching them arrive for camp is the best part of the day, says Katie O’Kelly, who was hired as the theater’s Managing Director in September.

“When I look out the window and see kids running from their cars to come inside, I think to myself, ‘This is why I do what I do,’” she says.

Giles and O’Kelly are co-directors – a leadership structure that is new to the Children’s Theatre but common in the industry, O’Kelly says.

“With the growth we want to have, having co-collaborators is really helpful,” she says.

Giles oversees programming, the artistic vision, the education department and the stage productions. O’Kelly runs the business, the administration, the facilities and fundraising.

“I don't know how Debbie did it. It took two people to replace her,” O’Kelly says.

Both Giles and O’Kelly graduated from Wofford College in Spartanburg. Giles is from Spartanburg County, and O’Kelly is from Florence. The chance to be closer to family influenced their decision to join the Children’s Theater.

“I fell in love with theater and the arts at Wofford. Coming back to this community where I found my place in the world, and the chance to give back to that same community … It’s full circle,” O’Kelly says.

“Taking on Debbie’s legacy … She worked so hard for this institution and put us on a strong foundation to dream about what the next 35 years will look like.”

Most recently, O’Kelly was Director of Operations and Production at Triad Stage in Greensboro, North Carolina, and an adjunct professor at nearby universities.

“We see so many studies on arts integration and the effects on young people – it can increase test scores and self-confidence. I think about that every day,” she says.

In addition to summer camp, the Children’s Theatre conducts semester-long camps, school field trips to the theater, and storytelling in schools – often at no charge for children and schools in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

“My No. 1 priority is hunting for new grant opportunities, finding that funding. We don’t want to turn a child away. And sometimes that can be challenging,” O’Kelly says.

Giles worked in Seattle and Minneapolis but says he felt that he could have more impact in a smaller community like Greenville. He has always wanted to work with teens and children.

“I have a tremendous passion for young people,” Giles says. “I love to give artists the tools and the resources to do something amazing. This job was an opportunity to do a thing that I love most, empowering artists to be their best and most exciting artistic selves.”

Next season, the theater will produce eight shows – including the classic “Mary Poppins”; the silly “Pinkalicious The Musical”; and “The Watsons Go To Birmingham – 1963,” the story of a Black family that visits Birmingham, Alabama, as the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing occurs.

In productions, young actors take on some roles, while adults take on others.

Children in the audience must have a chaperone, but all performances are suitable for every age. The productions are meant to be a family experience, where parents or grandparents and their children and grandchildren can be entertained and inspired, Giles and O’Kelly say.

“Even the hard stuff is told in a way that is accessible and approachable for a young person,” Giles says.

Giles says he believes that students deal with a lot of “hard stuff” – including COVID and social media.

“It's hard to be a young person,” he says. “COVID must have been terrifying for an 8-year-old or a 9-year-old. You look at the adults who have been there for you. What happens when the people who you expect to have all the answers don't have the answers anymore and are just as confused and scared and lost as you are?”

The theater provides a safe place for young people to talk about their experiences, their questions, their struggles and their worries – and to explore their joys, excitement and passions.

“This space is staffed with people who exist solely to validate who you are, to say that you matter, that you are important. What you bring to the world is profound and beautiful,” Giles says.

Society is not always kind to young people, he says. Adults, friends and posts on social media can make children and teens feel that they don’t matter, that they’re not good enough, not attractive enough.

“It’s a world where you’re never enough. The theater is the antidote to that,” Giles says. “We exist to say that what you bring to the world is enough, that the ideas and the imagination in your brain really are going to change things. And we're here to give you the space and the tools to do so.”

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Greenville's Children's Theatre. Summer camps keep co-directors busy