Summer Theatre Camp Students Sport Snoopy Ears

By Eliza Hallabeck

Around 40 friends and family sat waiting to see The World According to Charlie Brown performed in a double room in the Newtown High School on Friday.

The performers had five days to prepare, and according to Linda Randazzo, the director for Lamar Productions, which presented the program, the children learned their lines and stage directions quickly.

“They worked hard,” said Ms Randazzo during a phone interview. “It is not easy to put a performance together in one week.”

When she was introducing the play, Ms Randazzo said she was thankful that the parents shared their children for one week for the performance. She said the camp is about giving children the ability to perform in front of an audience, and the members of the camp ranged from age 6 to 11.

The play was a combination of monologues that came from multiple member of the Peanuts group. The camp students started attending on June 23 and performed the play on June 27 at 1 pm.

“We welcome you to our presentation,” said Ms Randazzo to the audience. “All of these performers should be very proud of themselves.”

The play began with the students wearing Snoopy ears to show when they were performing monologues from the dog himself, and when they were performing characters like Charlie Brown or Lucy they did not wear the ears.

“Dear friends,” one performer said to the audience while wearing the Snoopy ears, “today you have come to see the world according to him and me.”

Names like “Blockhead” and “Dog” were used in-between witty jokes to which the audience responded.

“I could have studied Shakespeare, but just because I’m a dog it is just not possible,” said one performer while portraying Snoopy.

Ms Randazzo said she chose the play because she was going through a number of different options and she realized The World According to Charlie Brown had enough parts for all of the students to perform.

“It gives all of them the opportunity to shine,” said Ms Randazzo.

Over the week, Ms Randazzo said, the students showed much energy and discipline.

After the performance Ms Randazzo said the most important part of the performance was that the students had the courage to get up in front of the audience. She said the purpose of the camp was not to put children on Broadway, but to give them gumption.

“I think they did great,” said Rachel Marotta, Ms Randazzo’s helper at Lamar Productions.

She said she helped with the camp over the week, and she was impressed with the actors. The children showed a phenomenal talent for the art of acting, she said.

“I’m kind of upset that it only lasted a week,” said Ms Marotta.