5/28/2020

The Totally Awesome Musical Theater Summer Camp!

With summer vacation being spent on the island this year, you are probably looking for amazing, fun camps for your children. Here is one, right here in Taipei, developed by Stage Time and Juice at the Red Room. Stage Time and Juice has a special place in the hearts of myself and my children. It is THE space that my children most-comfortably explored their creative processes, and developed confidence as performers and organizers in the Arts. Check out the full introduction of this year's camp, below.






Stage Time and Juice at the Red Room will be bringing back our exciting theater camp this summer...but with a twist! Campers will develop their own 3 act musical through 3 songs that they will help write! All lyrics, story, and characters will be created by the campers! We’ll spend 5 days writing the songs and dialogue, creating choreography, and rehearsing! We’ll then present the show for friends and family on the final day!

What to expect!


Campers will attend camp Wed. July 15 to Sunday, July 19 from 10am to 3pm. Camper drop off is 9:30am, and pick up will be between 3 and 3:30pm. Campers will spend the day creating their musical! A tasty lunch prepared by the chefs of the Sunworld Dynasty Hotel will be provided at noon each day. Camp will be led by our music gurus, Qori Moorehaul and Jon Franco. Don't be surprised if Camp Moms Constance Woods and Sue DeSimone also throw a song or dance into the works!

Orientation will be on July 27, at 2:30pm (location to be determined). At orientation, Qori and Jon will get to know the campers and gather suggestions for characters, plot, lines, and lyrics. During the two weeks between orientation and campy, they will take the best ideas and make an outline, and send it to the kids, to prepare for day one. The musical with sample lyrics will be pre-recorded and sent to the parents before camp, to help inspire campers to come with their ideas!

Target age:8-12 creative individuals between the ages of 8-15.

Language: English

【 上課時間 | Date & Time 】

對象:8-15歲,具備英語基礎的學生。
夏令營地址: 台北王朝大酒店, C1
名額:最少\8位, 12 位滿班

Camp Location: Sunworld Dynasty Hotel, Room C1
Age: 8-15 yo
Language: English
Class size: 8 students min, 12 students max.

說明會:6/27 (六): 2:00 - 3:00 pm (地點 TBA)
夏令營日期:2020/7/15 (三)~7/19 (日)
時段:10:00-15:00 (9:30 開門,工作人員會留下收拾整理到 15:30)
表演茶會: 2020 7/19 3(日) 15:00--16:00
Orientation (Sat. 6/27) : 2:00 - 3:00 pm (location TBA)
Camp (Wed .7/15 - Sun. 7/19) : 10 am - 3 pm (drop off 9:30 am, pickup 3:30 pm)
Lunch prepared daily by the chefs of Sunworld Dynasty Hotel
Performance and Reception (Sun 7/19 ) : 3 pm - 4 pm

【課程內容 | Class Description】


Orientation
Qori Moore and Jon Franco will get to know the campers and gather suggestions for characters, plot, lines and lyrics. During the two weeks between orientation and camp, they will take the best ideas and make an outline, and send it to the kids, to prepare for day one. The musical with sample lyrics will be pre recorded and sent to parent before camp, to help inspire campers to come with their ideas!

Day 1

Develop plot of 3-act play.
Work on one song and a few lines of dialogue to set the song up.

Optional activity: (if time permits) introduction to blues and jitterbug by Sue DeSimone


Days 2 - 4

Break down each song and practice and memorize lines and blocking/choreography.

Optional activity: (if time permits) introduction to blues and jitterbug by Sue DeSimone

Day 5

Dress rehearsal/run through

Performance at 3:00 pm
Reception 3:30-4:00 pm

*********

COVID-19 PRECAUTIONS


We discourage parents from sending sick children to camp. We will conduct temperature checks upon arrival and after lunch. We will also remind the participants to wash hands frequently throughout the day.
請勿將疑似生病的孩子送去參加任何營隊活動。我們在營隊裡,也都有例行性的體溫檢測。將會提醒大家要多洗手

Registration link: https://forms.gle/ZweXozVLer3otsub9 **

**Pricing info, contact info etc is all in that registration link.

Details about the venue here.





5/27/2020

Jingmei White Terror Memorial Park


Situated in Xindian, this park is on my must-visit list. It is free, it is accessible, it introduces history in a quiet, thoughtful way, and it is big and inviting for families to visit without feeling they are encroaching on anyone's "museum" experience. Their English website is informative and easy to follow, so I will put the link here. There are many videos in English introducing different prisoner experiences on the website.


Let's start with the seven thousand name blocks just inside the memorial park. My daughter and I were taking photos of these name blocks when a middle-aged woman and two elderly people, a man and a woman, arrived, and began studying the blocks. After some minutes, I heard the middle-aged woman call, "Mom, mom! Here he is! Here is dad!" The woman and the man rushed in their slow, elderly way to stand beside the woman and stare at the block with what I assume is their husband and father's name on it. This was my and my daughter's introduction to the Jingmei White Terror Memorial Park and the loss Taiwan's White Terror period - the longest in history - brought for so many Taiwanese.


The park itself is a peaceful space. For some, it will be a place for contemplation, but young children can also be free to run around and enjoy the large outdoor area. This is the original site where political prisoners were held, tried, and imprisoned. Walk through the interrogation rooms, see the furniture guards sat in when they interviewed suspects and touch the walls I imagine prisoners leaned against when they were almost out of energy to withstand their sorrows. 

There are audio tour sets available in several languages, and there is also a children's version. I was surprised that my daughter got so engaged with the narration. I could sense that it moved her to hear the stories and interviews through the earset.



The memorial park could have been a depressing space, but there is a balance between sadness and hope, as well as hands-on, lighthearted activity. Here, my daughter is riding a bike that was in a Taiwanese movie from the White Terror period. When she pumped the pedals, the hat lit up.



There are stamps placed around the buildings, so children can enjoy collecting them. Be sure to prepare a piece of card or a notebook to collect them in. These stamps are a part of Taiwan museum culture, so you can collect them from all around the island!





Taiwan has come such a long way with bilingual information since I started this blog! It's great to see, but maybe my notes are redundant... 




This is the canteen where the prisoners ate. Prisoners had jobs such as doing laundry 


There are intriguing photo opportunities, where you can line up the images of prisoners and transpose them onto the large concrete tubs or wooden tables where they would have worked, washing and ironing clothes to earn their food. There is also a VR experience but that is currently closed due to concerns of sharing equipment during CoVid-19.


Take some snacks and enjoy them in the pagoda. There were several birds flying around while we were there, too. Again, even if your children are too young or sensitive to want to learn about the history, they can still enjoy the space and take in whatever is within their scope to manage. 





One building is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Convention of Rights of the Child. In this exhibit, you can learn more about the rights of the child in Taiwan. There are stories illustrating the ways children were denied their human rights during the period of White Terror and they were not exempt from punishment under the regime. There are hands-on activities for children and the exhibit is a hopeful one.


Tip: Purchase the chidren's book: Ode to Azalea Mountain. On the back cover is a QR code you can scan to hear the audio including the song.




Visitor information:
Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park
  • Address : No.131, Fusing Rd. Xindian Dist., New Taipei City 23150, Taiwan (R.O.C)
  • TEL:+886-2-22182438
  • Park Hours: Tue thru Sun, 9:00am to 17:00pm
  • Admission : Free
  • Link to map, buses, Chinese address here.