Theatre opens summer camp registration, considering virtual performances

ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond Community Theatre will open registration for its virtual Young Peoples Theatre this weekend as it prepares for a season that will likely have to be experienced entirely virtually.

Those who wish to sign up for Young Peoples Theatre summer camp can do so online at www.richmondcommunitytheatre.org. The camp will be held from July 20 to July 31 with the final performance having the theme of “Once upon a pandemic: How classic characters deal with today’s problems.” The children will work together to come up with the story, characters, costumes and sets for the show.

The performance will be done recorded over Zoom to maintain social distancing, and the Theatre will ask for donations, according to Director Merrie Dawkins.

“This is just to get their creative juices going,” Dawkins said.

Professional script writer Rebecca Bossen will also give the campers a synopsis of the script-writing process and take questions from the children.

Dawkins said that the public will not be physically in the Theatre this season, but the show will go on.

“We’re going to be doing things — the Theatre is not going to be dead,” Dawkins said.

No other events are planned at this point. Dawkins said that any performances would have to be those that have casts of two or three actors. The performances also won’t include musicals because they require actors to project their voices which causes a greater risk of them putting particulate matter into the air that could transmit COVID-19.

One performance was rescheduled to September but that won’t happen now, along with the other three Dawkins had hoped to announce for the 2020-2021 season.

“We want to get through this (pandemic) so we can all get back to doing what we enjoy doing,” she said.