The Meet Hope Podcast
The Meet Hope Podcast
Second Listen: Voices of the Future: Exploring Faith through the Arts at Music Drama Camp
This episode originally aired in July of 2023, and we hope you enjoy it again as a Second Listen this year!
From the original show notes: Are you ready to be inspired by the voices of the future? Join us on a joyful exploration of faith through the lens of art and drama, as we connect with some of the talented young members of our Hope community. Their enthusiasm is infectious as they share why they come back to drama camp year after year! Perhaps it will make you too ask yourself why embracing art in all its forms can be an valuable part of our faith journey. Special thank you to Corinne, Carson, Jacob, Jocelyn. Gabby, Faith, Charlotte, and Cain!
Thanks for being a part of the HOPE community as we continue conversations about faith and hope! You can learn more at meethope.org or find us on socials @meethopechurch. Join in for worship on Sundays at meethope.online.church! Have a question? Contact us at podcast@meethope.org.
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Hello Hope Podcast listeners. We live in a fast-paced world where new material and ideas are thrown at you 24-7. Some of you told us this and said I want to listen to everything, but it's hard to catch up. Well, we're here to help. We desire to be a place that is grateful for and respectful of your precious time, and so to serve you best, we will every so often be resharing past episodes that we call Second Listen, because we think they are worth taking a second to replay. Even if you are an every week listener, we think having a second listen to these episodes will make an impact on your weekend life, and if you have heard this one but are behind on new episodes, now is a great time to catch up on any others you have missed. Thank you, and here we go.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Meet Hope podcast, where we have conversations about faith and hope. Hope is one church made of people living out their faith through two expressions in person and online. We believe a hybrid faith experience can lead to a growing influence in our community and our world for the sake of others. Welcome to Hope.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Hope from Music and Drama Camp which happened at Hope over the last two weeks. They just had their final show last Thursday, july 27th, and they did an amazing, amazing job, and so we hope, if you got to see them, that you if you see one of them or you hear one of them share, that you cheer them on next time you interact with them, and we just want to thank them in advance for sharing a little bit with us. But without further ado, we'll get right to it, so please enjoy this episode where we talk with some Hope Music and Drama Campers. So tell me your name. My name is Corinne, and how old are you? I'm 10 years old, and how? How many times have you done music and drama camp? This is my first year, and how's it going so far? Have you done music and drama camp? Uh, this is my first year, and how's it going so far? Uh, great, do you like it? Yeah, what is your favorite part about it?
Speaker 1:Um I like doing the dances, so you're in the dance like ensemble.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What does that mean? What do you get to do?
Speaker 3:Um, I got to dance to some songs. I have a solo and yeah, that's uh. Do you like performing on stage?
Speaker 1:uh, yeah, I've done it multiple times in kids choir, so I'm kind of used to it. Oh, awesome, what are all the different things that you get to do as part of drama camp? So I know this week you're rehearsing your show but, last week you did more things right last week we learned.
Speaker 3:We learned our songs and we got to watch the people act and stuff.
Speaker 1:Okay, and do you guys have snack while you're here? Do you have a favorite snack?
Speaker 3:Probably yesterday's, it was pancakes. The whole building smelled really good when it was pancakes and it was like whipped cream and chocolate chips.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So this is your first year and you're having a good time. Not too scary or overwhelming, or you know it doesn't make you nervous no, not really. So if someone else were thinking about trying it for the first time, why would you say they should give it a try?
Speaker 3:Because it's really fun and you get to meet new people and learn new things.
Speaker 1:Cool, thank you. Tell me your name, I'm Carson. Hi, carson, how old are you Ten and how many times have you done music?
Speaker 3:This is my second year.
Speaker 1:And what are you doing in this year's show?
Speaker 3:I'm a dancer.
Speaker 1:So what does that mean? What do you get to do?
Speaker 3:I get to dance in a lot of dances, but I also sing in a quartet.
Speaker 1:What is your favorite part of camp?
Speaker 3:Being with all the fun teachers and my friends.
Speaker 1:Do you have a favorite class that you've done?
Speaker 3:Probably dance.
Speaker 1:And who do you do that with Gabby?
Speaker 3:Charlie and Carly.
Speaker 1:If someone, let's say it's their first year, let's say it's like their first time on stage, how would you encourage them to not be nervous?
Speaker 3:I'd say just look in front, don't look at the audience, look over them and just don't think about anybody's in there and just do your best is there anything else you'd want to tell somebody about camp? Well, I play it's fun because, like you'd want to tell somebody about camp Well, I play it's fun because, like you don't have to worry about like missing sports because I play soccer and softball, because it's earlier in the day.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great to know. That's really helpful. Cool, okay, thank you. Can you tell me your name? I'm Jacob Parks. How old are you? 14. And how many years have you been doing drama camp? All six, I believe. All six years that you can do it. So what do you know? What age you can start drama camp at? Coming out of second grade, okay, and what grade are you going into now? Going into ninth? You're going into high school, yeah. Are you excited? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what are you doing at music and drama camp this year? I am one of the main characters, wyatt. That's exciting. Is that a lot of responsibility? Yeah, you have to learn a lot of lines. Yeah, and how long do you have to learn all your lines?
Speaker 4:Usually it's about eight days before the show.
Speaker 1:How is it going? Do you feel like you have them?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think I have them down pretty well, we're recording this.
Speaker 1:What two days before your show?
Speaker 4:Yeah, Do you?
Speaker 1:feel ready. Yeah, okay. Do you have a favorite part of camp when you're here?
Speaker 4:Probably the first two days. I like learning everyone's name and having fun doing stuff, getting the set all ready. What are some of the things you do the first couple days? The first couple days so painting, uh, for the set making t-shirts for the show practicing dances, singing, acting.
Speaker 1:Do you guys go through like an audition process?
Speaker 4:auditions are on the second day.
Speaker 1:Yeah okay, what do you normally do for that?
Speaker 4:it's just we line up in a line and then go onto the stage and say a line that we're supposed to and just try to act it out as well as you can. If it's like an accent or something, you do the accent. If it's just an attitude, you use the attitude.
Speaker 1:So this year your character's name is Wyatt, and what does your character do in the show?
Speaker 4:He is trying to help his sister learn prayer, while she thinks that prayer is useless and doesn't work.
Speaker 1:And I heard it's based on a video game kind of.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so Wyatt's pretty much the creator of the video game and he's trying to get his sister to play it.
Speaker 1:Can you relate to your character?
Speaker 4:Do you like video games? I do enjoy video games. Yeah, Do you have a favorite Big fan of Halo? I like Halo a lot.
Speaker 3:Tell us your name. My name is Jocelyn how old are you?
Speaker 1:I'm 11. And is this? How long have you been doing?
Speaker 3:Drama Camp Since I was in like third grade, Okay so how many years do you know? I guess like three maybe.
Speaker 1:Okay, what? What do you do at music and drama camp?
Speaker 3:Um, I sing and dance with my friends. Um, that's, yeah, that's good. And um, we practice our like dance moves together with miss christy. Yeah, and it's very fun. What is? Really fun about it um, mostly like being with my friends and spending time with them do you um?
Speaker 1:do you have friends that you you do drama camp with every year?
Speaker 3:My friends Hope and Savannah.
Speaker 1:What is your favorite part of drama camp?
Speaker 3:Mostly the singing and the dance moves, because they're very fun to learn, do you?
Speaker 1:learn dance with Gabby. Yes, so tell me your name, gabrielle, and how old are you? Gabrielle, I'm 23.
Speaker 5:So how long have you been involved with music and drama camp? I think I've been in. I was a student in drama camp since one of the first ones, so whenever whenever that was Okay, so like a really long time.
Speaker 1:Yes, so you've been a camper and then like a counselor yes, and now I was like a CIT type person for one.
Speaker 5:Yeah, for one year and then I think I've been choreographing or the director probably since, like junior year of high school. I want to say Okay, something around there, yeah, so so what?
Speaker 1:tell us what is your role in drama camp?
Speaker 5:So I am the um dance director, um, and I choreograph dances for the drama camp.
Speaker 1:So what is different about doing music drama camp when it involves there's like a faith aspect to it.
Speaker 5:How does that make it a little different? Um, yeah, so I really try to well, when I create movement, I definitely try to um incorporate movements with praising God in the movement, um, which definitely changes it from a regular uh dance that would just be put on stage. Um, but I do really enjoy when they are singing about God and those movements correlate with the uh, the lyrics or the music. Um, so I think that's like a really special part and um being able to share that with kids and share that faith and ability to praise God while dancing and singing and acting, um, I think that's like really special and really different from any other. You know performance that a kid would be in, you know, for theater or anything like that. Um, so, just being able to teach them that and being like, okay, well, this is, you know, um a phrase about okay, we're praising God, so we're going to lift up our hands to this guy and, you know, do a move such as that yeah.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Why do you think it matters that we engage with art as part of it, like engaging in our faith?
Speaker 5:It gives another pathway into learning about God. So, yeah, you go to church and we sing songs and we praise the Lord, and that's an art form as well, but through this, you can also learn about God and praise Him, rather than just reading the Word or praying. It gives another avenue to who we are as Christians and to experience that and to step into something that's more creative. Um, so I I just think it's it's super important, cause it's just another way to express yourself while being, while praising the Lord and while connecting to God, which I think is awesome.
Speaker 3:My name is Faith Elizabeth Webster.
Speaker 1:And uh, how many years have you done Drama Camp?
Speaker 3:This is my first year.
Speaker 1:This is your first year. Were you really excited to get to do Drama Camp this year? Yes, why were you excited to do music and Drama Camp?
Speaker 3:Because I've never really been allowed to be on a stage like that I saw you.
Speaker 1:Were you trying on a costume when I came in today? Yes, do you know what your costume is going to be? Little cowgirl, you're gonna be a cowgirl. There's a cowgirl in praystation. Yes, what other characters are in praystation?
Speaker 3:there's a sneaky cowboy, chloe, and her brother, wyatt Rodeo Webber, and there's some cactuses.
Speaker 6:I am Charlotte Olsen. How old are you, Charlotte? I am 18, almost 19.
Speaker 1:Okay, and how long have you been involved with music drama camp?
Speaker 6:A long, long time.
Speaker 1:Do you remember how old you were when you first did it? Like, did you do it the very first year? You could do it in third grade. I did in fourth grade, in fourth grade. Okay, so that was the fourth grade. You're what? Probably like 11, and now you're 18? I was probably like 10. Yeah, okay, so a long time, yes, okay, and but you're 18, I was probably like 10, yeah okay, so a long time, yes, okay, and but you're not a camper anymore, right, okay, what are you this year?
Speaker 1:I'm a counselor, so what is it? What is a counselor at music drama camp do?
Speaker 6:well, I've been working on the set, doing set design. I designed the set for this year. That's's cool. Was that hard to do? No, so it's like a pixel art because the show is based on a video game. Okay, but I do pixel art for commissioning as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it was like right up your alley. I have experience doing that. That's awesome that you get to use that passion of yours here. So you designed the set this year.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 1:And then how do you make the set come to?
Speaker 6:life. Well, it took a lot of painting last week. All I did was paint. Do you have other?
Speaker 1:people that paint with you yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6:So some of like, when people were free they would come in and paint when campers were free. They would come in and help paint, but like measuring things out, so it's the way we designed.
Speaker 1:It was the longest part of doing stuff that sounds pretty like intricate. Yeah, is it like, by the like square. Yeah, we did it by square inch.
Speaker 6:So it wasn't extremely small, but it was kind of it had to be precise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you help other camper. So you help campers. Now, instead of being a camper, you help lead campers. Yep, do you like getting to do that?
Speaker 6:Yeah, I come back every year because I have a great experience every time I do it and every year I see the kids put in more effort than they did the time before and improve more. Every year you see improvement through each camper, and then you see new campers come in and start to learn and start to improve and then they come back and then it's so cool.
Speaker 7:All right, my name is Kane Joins.
Speaker 1:And how old are you?
Speaker 7:18.
Speaker 1:And how long have you been involved with music drama camp?
Speaker 7:Since probably sixth grade, so around 12, 13.
Speaker 1:So what it's?
Speaker 7:like five-ish years, five-ish years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so why do you do it every year?
Speaker 7:The first year. I did it because I was kind of made to do it. But I was kind of really grateful that I got to be here and when I was done in eighth grade I was kind of looking for any way to still be involved with the camp. It's just a good time.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you started out as a camper and then you moved on to a different role. What do you do after you're a camper?
Speaker 7:So you kind of just help out where you're needed. So um I did set design for a little bit, and then I really like working in the tech booth with those guys.
Speaker 1:That's what you're doing this year. Yeah, uh, do you have a role in the tech booth?
Speaker 7:Uh, I'm recording the show this year.
Speaker 1:Does that feel like a lot of pressure?
Speaker 7:Yeah, I've never done it before.
Speaker 1:Well, I saw you were training with somebody today.
Speaker 7:Yeah, so did that? How'd that go? Yeah Uh, scott Cruz, he was back there kind of telling me all I need to know. He told me what buttons to stay away from.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's a. That's a great thing to tell you, right, just don't touch these buttons. So you've done set design. You've done your recording. Do you have a favorite part of camp?
Speaker 7:I like watching everybody kind of progress with their lines and have fun becoming their role. I only acted one year. I was hitting the tech booth, but that was so much fun.
Speaker 1:So you like the behind the scenes like watching everybody else. Yeah, um, which is a big, important role, like if the sound doesn't work and the lights don't work and you can't record, like it's kind of a boring show and hear it right. If someone, uh were to ask you, like what is music drama camp, what would you tell them?
Speaker 7:uh, I'd say it's two weeks where you come and, you know, stop sleeping in as much during the summer, but it's very worth it. You get to meet a bunch of new people. Uh, I got closer with a couple guys because of the camp and also, you know, it made me have a reason to read stories about god, even though if it was through plays, yeah, it seems kind of silly, but when you're not doing anything and then you find these two weeks, it's like, oh, I need to get back to doing what I should be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really cool. I asked someone else why they think something like the arts, so music and drama and acting and dance. Like why do you think that that matters in our faith? Like why is that a good way to connect with God?
Speaker 7:You're having fun and you might not even realize it at times that that's what you're doing, but you're coming to church for one just on days that aren't Sunday. You're just. You're here more and you know the play is always designed around the story, so you're learning about something you might not have known.
Speaker 1:Or, if you didn't know it, now you know more about it because you've acted it out if someone were to give music and drama camp like it's their first time they want to give it a try, why, like someone's telling them, like you said, did like your mom make you do it? Or your family member um, if someone's like parent is is trying to push them to do it and they're like I don't know if I want to, why why would you tell them they should do it?
Speaker 7:it's fun. I know that sounds kind of boring, but it's really fun just to be here. And it's also you're not at home, because I mean if you're not doing anything I don't see why not. And then you get here and it's really a good time. You get to meet a whole bunch of new people, because I know when I first got here I didn't know a lot of people. I was new to Hope. So this was a good time for me to meet new people and have fun doing it. And then I didn't even realize how much I had learned about like a Bible story until the end of it and then kind of it applied to my life outside of camp and it was good to see.
Speaker 1:So we hope that you enjoyed today listening to the Meet Hope podcast and hearing from some of Hope's music and drama campers. It was such a joy to get to talk with each one of them and hear their own perspectives on why they love engaging with music and art and dance and tech and drama as they also grow in their faith. We hope that you have a really great rest of your week and that you will join us back here next week for another episode. Until then, have a great day.
Speaker 2:Thanks for being a part of the Hope Community as we continue our conversations about faith and hope. If you don't already, please join us for worship on Sundays or on demand. You can learn more at meethopeorg or find us on socials at meethopechurch.