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Life’s lessons taught on the stage by Largo High grad
By ANTHONY SALVEGGI
| Article published on Thursday, July 13, 2006 |
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| Largo high graduate Flip Kobler and his wife, Cindy Marcus, now living in Los Angeles, have started a teen drama summer camp at Francis Wilson Playhouse. |
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CLEARWATER – To hear Leah Radel and her fellow classmates describe it, the teen theater camp whose creation she inspired has meant more than lessons in stage craft and acting.
It has also become a family.
Now in its third year, the Francis Wilson Playhouse Teen Drama Summer Camp can trace its origins back to 2003. That’s when Radel wanted a part in “Wild Dust: the Musical,” a play by Flip Kobler and Dennis Poore being staged at the playhouse in Clearwater.
Although she was too young for any of the roles, the 13 year old from East Lake Woodlands endeared herself to Kobler and his wife, Cindy Marcus, who call Los Angeles their home.
Kobler, a 1980 graduate of Largo High School, and Marcus came back to the area later that year to be with family and friends during Christmas. When Marcus visited Radel, the young girl expressed her frustration with not being able to find a summer theater program that was geared toward teens without being financially out of reach.
“So Cindy came home that night and said ‘Guess what we’re doing this summer,’” Kobler said.
It would be yet another challenge for the veterans of the entertainment industry. After starting their careers as actors, the husband-and-wife team had turned to writing, with credits that include sequels to “The Lion King” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
Poore, who also lives in Los Angeles and is a longtime friend of Kobler and Marcus, has been the composer for a number of theater productions and contributed music for the 1989 film “Earth Girls are Easy.”
By summer 2004, founders Kobler, Marcus and Poore opened their first camp at the playhouse. Through its success, they expanded it to Southern California in 2005, where they run the program through their Showdown Stage Company.
The program offers teens a chance to learn many aspects of theater craft, including acting, directing, playwriting, stage movement and songwriting. And by the accounts of those who’ve taken part in the camp, it’s also a place where teens can be themselves, build their self-esteem, and feel like they’re a part of something valuable.
“It’s been the most amazing thing I’ve ever done,” said Radel, 16, of the experience. Radel, who is focused on being a professional actor and has a manager in Los Angeles, credits the program for advancing her career. “This is what’s given me the confidence to go after what I want and to believe in myself.”
Jennilee Navales, 16, described herself as having been “closed-up” prior to joining the summer workshop. “It was mostly this camp that helped me open up,” she said. “Every time I’m here, I feel like I can do anything.”
Now in her third year with the camp, Navales said she got involved at the urging of her friend Marie Hankinson. Hankinson, 16, called herself a closed-in person who didn’t talk to anyone outside of her group of friends. After seeing an ad for the camp in a newspaper, she decided to attend and asked Navales to join her.
“After the first year, we just had to keep on coming back because these people are amazing,” Hankinson said.
Joe Southall, 18, has attended the camp four times, including once in Los Angeles. He credits the program for helping him “grow as a person as well as an actor” and “helping me to look at things in a different way.”
This is the third Showdown camp for Annie Horak, 18, and her first in Clearwater. Horak, who’s from Los Angeles, echoed her classmates’ assessment of the program. “It’s a safe environment for people who are scared in the beginning to open up themselves.”
“When I met them (Kobler, Marcus and Poore), I was a completely different person,” Horak said. “I was extremely shy. They’ve really brought so much out of me and I just feel like a totally new person. I can’t imagine doing anything else over the summer.”
In addition to giving the teens’ confidence, the camp has also brought them together by giving them a place where they can be comfortable with their differences.
“Here, everyone talks to everyone, and it doesn’t matter who you are,” Navales said, contrasting the camp’s atmosphere with the social cliques that develop in high school.
As she talked about the camp, Radel often described it as her family.
“I’ve never seen a group of kids in any situation become as close as we get,” she said.
Horak added, “We’re all different. It makes us that much more of a family.”
It’s a family that has grown to 63 students, nearly double the first year’s group. Not all of the teens attend because they are interested in being actors, Marcus said. Some had nothing else to do for the summer, while the parents of others thought it would be a good experience. The program is also designed for those wanting to overcome their nervousness in speaking before groups of people.
“Everybody has to stand on stage, say their name, and we make everybody sing,” Poore said.
In order to promote collaboration among the teens, the camp emphasizes ensemble cast work instead of shows with lead actors. “Everybody’s contributing to something that is greater than themselves,” Kobler said, touching on one of the main philosophies behind the camp.
“We’re not here to make you a star,” he said. “What we’re here to do is to give you the tools to become one on your own.”
To help the students develop those tools, Kobler, Marcus and Poore have authored all of the plays the teens perform. For this year’s Clearwater camp, they’ve written “Quixote” and “Usher,” which were inspired by the works of Miguel de Cervantes and Edgar Allan Poe, respectively.
“If you do the ‘Wizard of Oz,’ you pretty much know what the Scarecrow is like; you pretty much know what the Tin Man is like,” Kobler said. “Here, they’re getting the chance to do original works and whatever they bring to the table can help shape the characters.”
As Marcus expressed it, the benefits of the camp’s activities extend beyond the stage.
“Really what they’re learning here are life skills,” she said. “They’re learning compromise. They’re learning to think on their feet. They’re learning to use all these wonderful tools that will help them in any line of work, in any facet of their lives.”
After the Clearwater camp ends July 23, Marcus, Poore and choreographer Domenic Bisesti will move on to the third and newest teen academy, in Jefferson City, Mo. Showdown is currently in talks to expand to Long Island, N.Y., San Francisco, and Seoul, South Korea.
Radel, who has attended all five of the workshops, including the last two in Los Angeles, said the program is special because it immerses students into all aspects of theater life – from building the stage sets to putting on the show.
“It’s such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for anyone who does this,” Radel said. “It’s changed my life more than I can possibly explain.”
More information about the camp can be found here: franciswilsonplayhouse.org/camp.htm www.showdownstageco.com.
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Article published on Thursday, July 13, 2006
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