By Lauren Johnson

Students at Summer Spotlight, hosted by Troy University, spend the week making costumes, props, set pieces, and creating choreography to prepare for their Willy Wonka show Friday, July 12, at 7:00.

The students work all week towards this showcase. They start in the morning with creative drama classes and stagecraft classes where they learn about acting and how to prepare the stage. Then, in the afternoon, they rehearse for the show.

Jenny Meadows, a theater education teacher at Troy University, says, “It’s remarkable that these students are able to put on a full show by the end of the week. It’s very rewarding for them to be involved in this process.”

As a graduate from Troy University herself with a degree in theater and education, Meadows explains one of the main reasons she loves theater is being able to create something as an ensemble, which requires a lot of corporation, creativity, and hard work.

“These children work really hard this week, but they don’t complain because we make it fun,” she said.

In the lessons, Meadows explains that they try to use interdisciplinary subject matter such as math, history, and science in a fun way for the students.

“We have the only theater education program in the state and Summer Spotlight is like a laboratory for our preservice teachers to try lesion plans and get some real-world experience before they are out in the classroom,” said Meadows.

Ever since the camp started eleven years ago, Summer Spotlight has continued to grow and engage students in learning and having fun.

Meadows has been a part of this program from the beginning and said, “It’s been really fun to watch, and we are happy to see it grow each summer.”

Because of the large turnout for the creative drama camp, a second camp was opened this week.

“We also have Spotlight on Dance and the Performance Intensive for high schoolers, which is coming up next week, and next week we have 150 campers coming.”