Summer workshop preparing to perform 'Jungle Book'
By Angela Greiner Contributing Writer

Peter Worrest, a college student returning to the community to assist in the Arts Alliance summer workshop, leads children in theater games.

Region - With 15 rehearsals in a three-week time period, children from the Metrowest community will be ready to perform Disney's "Jungle Book" Friday July 13 at 1:30 p.m.

The students, in grades three through five, are part of a drama camp run by the Arts Alliance at JFK Middle School in Hudson.

At the daily workshop, which runs from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., students spend time involved in theater games and activities as well as rehearsing for the performance. The director of the camp and the show is Christine Discipio, an English teacher, an active member of the Rivers Edge Players and a life-long performer.

"I have been dancing since I was 2," Discipio said.

She has always been involved with dance and theater and enjoys choreographing, she said, and really enjoys directing the kids at camp.

The workshop exposes students to the intricacies of theater and gives them an opportunity to have fun and learn to be comfortable on stage.

"Some of the students who come during the first few days don't talk very much and by the end they are singing and dancing on stage," Discipio said.

With the large musical component that the Jungle Book script off ers, most of the students will spend a lot of time on stage learning the basics of choreographing and singing in two-part choruses. Discipio is teaching students basic choreography, like the jazz box and the grape vine, because they are steps that are used often in performing.

College students and assistant directors Peter Worrest and Tom Goldstein are both product of the Arts Alliance summer programs. The assistants run the group theater games, Discipio explained, because they are filled with lots of creative ways to get the kids to break out of their shells. Worrest had the young performers happily under control and full of laughter and excitement as he ran them through several role-playing activities during their daily rehearsal.

Music Director Carolyn Alzapiedi explained that because the students come from so many different schools, they have a wide range of musical knowledge. Some of the students have had private music lessons, but the scope of musical knowledge that the students had depended upon what their school's music department taught.

Alzapiedi believes that the camp helps student build self-confidence.

"It gives them a chance to work together to produce a quality performance," Alzapiedi said.

The Jungle Book performance is one of several camps and shows open to the community that the Arts Alliance is sponsoring this summer. There are still a few slots available for children in the community interested in the performing arts.

Each of the summer workshops concludes with a performance of a popular production that is open to the community. Included in the $5 ticket price for the Jungle Book performance is the 1 p.m. showing of Little Theater's "Aesop's Fables."

The summer series includes several other children and adult performances, including "Disney's Aladdin Jr.," "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "Fame." For ticket prices, calendar listing of Arts Alliance shows or camp information, contact the Arts Alliance at www.upwitharts. org or call 978-562-1646.