Buck’s Rock Performing Arts
Clown
Improv, sketch, stand up - joke around and laugh all day! Our comedy program will help take your humor to the stage.
Improvising is like falling down a flight of stairs in front of an audience. If you seize up, you will land flat on your face. If you let go and float gracefully down, it will be very pretty, and you will land flat on your face. Either way, it's just plain funny.
At Buck’s Rock Camp, we take clowning around very seriously. In the Clown Shop we teach the fundamentals of long- and short-form improvisation in the tradition of Del Close, Second City, Saturday Night Live, Mad TV, and every presidential administration since Nixon. Here you will learn the art of taking a small suggestion and, using only your urbane wit, creating an entire world.
Each session, the Clown counselors lead campers through the whole process of creating a complete sketch comedy show. Working in small groups, campers write sketches that are put together into the ever-popular Clown Show. Campers and staff alike bring the belly laughs and make the night one to remember!
Quite simply, the Stand Up Comedy program is where teenage and junior campers come to learn how to be hilarious. Or if they're already hilarious, it's how they learn to show people how hilarious they are. Through discussions and brainstorming and other activities that sound very business-like but are actually a whole lot of fun, campers learn how to write jokes, put together a standup comedy set, and perform in front of adoring fans. In combination with our Improv program, kids learn all aspects of physical and verbal humor.
The Costume Shop designs all the costumes for Buck's Rock's summer theater and stage performances, dance recitals, clown shows, video projects, music performances, and more!
Teens and junior campers are welcome to help with shows in roles such as assistant designers, make-up designers, costume sewers, and wardrobe runners. Campers are indispensable on show nights and dress rehearsals, helping with costumes and makeup.
The Costume Shop works closely with all of the Performing Arts shops to make all of our campers look and feel performance-ready!
Costume
Creative arts meet performing arts in costume design.
Dance
Jazz, modern, hip hop, ballet – spend the summer dancing through camp.
Buck's Rock's Dance Studio exposes campers to dance as an art form, teaching them more about their physical, mental, and emotional selves. By communicating ideas and feelings in time, space, and energy, our dancers delve into their thoughts and emotions and learn how to use their bodies as an expressive instrument.
In our beautiful dance studio, there are activities to meet everyone's needs regardless of previous dance experience – campers are encouraged to explore whatever suits their interests. There are daily technique classes on all levels. Among the disciplines offered are classes in modern dance, jazz, ballet, tap, hip hop, choreography, improvisation, performance techniques, and more. In addition, the Dance Studio offers stretch classes, collaborations with other performance art shops, yoga and opportunities to choreograph independent projects.
Among the dance performance opportunities available to campers are a fully-mounted recital each session and the Festival Day Recital, all of which feature pieces choreographed by campers as well as dance staff.
Our Lighting and Sound Design (LSD) Studio is staffed with highly trained professionals. At LSD, you will have the opportunity to learn all aspects of theatrical lighting and sound through a combination of one-on-one instruction and hands-on experience. You will also be able to develop a thorough understanding of the processes involved in creating the worlds for the camp's stage productions.
Depending upon your level of interest, you can also learn how to install the lighting and sound equipment for each show, program a computerized light board, or create and edit your own sound effects. You could also work with one of our staff as an assistant designer, where you will be involved in the process of making artistic decisions about the look and sound of a play or musical.
When working as an assistant lighting designer, you will learn how to create your light plots by using the same software programs that are used on Broadway, Off Broadway, and at most regional theaters around the country. You will also be able to help choose the colors, angles and direction of all of the lights, as well as help create all of the lighting cues in the show.
As an assistant sound designer, you will learn how to foley your own sound effects, choose just the right piece of music or sound effect for a show, learn how to edit the sound, and how to run the sound during an actual theater performance!
Lighting and Sound Design
Learn lighting and sound design with the same equipment the professionals use.
Music
Rock, jazz, classical, R&B, a cappella– learn to play an instrument, sing, or take your music to the next level.
Music can be found everywhere at Buck's Rock. From the sounds of a jazz or rock band rehearsing in the Music Shed, to the strumming of twenty guitars on the porch, to a song spilling from the Voice Shed, campers are surrounded by music. From classical to heavy metal, acoustic to electronic, campers can indulge in the style of music they prefer and have the opportunity to explore new ones.
As with all our Montessori-inspired programs, teen and junior campers can enjoy the support of talented instructors while they explore music on their own terms to suit their interests. Our summer music camp ensembles include orchestra, choir, jazz band, and a cappella singing groups. Additional ensembles in chamber music, jazz vocals, and others are organized to allow the greatest opportunities for Music Shed involvement.
Guitar Snack is one of the Music Shed's most popular programs. Headquartered on Buck's Rock's porch at the center of camp life, Guitar Snack not only provides instruction in guitar, but also helps campers form bands for pleasure and performance.
Music Shed facilities include a large performance space called the Mushed, smaller spaces for piano and vocal rehearsal and the Drum Shed. All spaces are equipped with everything necessary for campers to fully enjoy their preferred form of music. Each session, campers and staff put on multiple musical performances, including the Mushed recital, Rock Cafe, and the huge Tribute Show!
From string dolls in ancient Egypt and Japanese shadow storytellers, to Punch and Judy, to Charlie McCarthy, and of course Jim Henson’s Muppets, puppetry has always been a part of popular culture. And it’s an exciting part of Buck’s Rock, too!
Our Puppetry Studio is chock full of everything campers need to create the next Kermit, a simple face drawn on a hand, a re-purposed sock or cardboard box, and any other materials that inspire. Campers will also find state-of-the-art video production equipment that includes a green screen wall. You can bring your puppets to life in your own movie through the magic of technology. Your imagination’s the limit!
The Puppetry Program was inspired by Peter van Roden from the Sesame Workshop – the organization behind Sesame Street, with additional guidance from puppeteer and author Noel MacNeal and generous support from Lisa and Cheryl Henson (Jim Henson's daughters). They all felt that Buck’s Rock was the ideal place to offer this program – yet another testament to our unique, one-of-a-kind culture.
Puppetry
Learn puppetry and filmmaking from puppeteer masters.
Radio
Be the voice of Buck’s Rock as you sit behind the mic in a real radio station.
Do you wish that you had your own radio show? Well, at Buck's Rock’s very own station, WBBC, you can! Buck's Rock Radio welcomes any camper into the studio who wants to hone their behind-the-mic skills and develop a radio show. Of course, you can just stop by and listen. We stream on our brand new online station (live in the summer). And don’t forget our quiz show every week—tune in and try your hand at some excellent trivia!
In addition to teaching you all about the equipment, we can record your show so you can listen to yourself talk on the radio over and over. We encourage campers to do a show about anything you love! Play your favorite rock songs, a compilation of the best showtunes, or the newest music from Rihanna. You can also do a talk show, discussing any topic you like! If you have something to say or just want to celebrate the music you love, we can help you get all of Buck's Rock to hear it.
Campers who participate in Set Design help build the many worlds created in our summer theater productions. Sometimes our worlds are abstract and surreal, and sometimes they are as real as your living room. Whatever the script calls for, we create in our fully equipped set shop!
Campers learn how to construct and paint scenery using a variety of tools, materials, and techniques. You might get to paint a whole background to look like the rolling hills of Oz, or build a bridge for people to cross, or just make the black box theater as sparse as possible.
Come help us make the magic that audiences see onstage, at each and every performance.
Set Design
Our summer camp makes the perfect setting to develop your set design skills.
Studio 59
A professional recording studio at camp? Absolutely.
Buck's Rock is extremely proud to have its very own recording studio equipped with state-of-the-art digital recording equipment.
At Studio 59, teen and junior summer campers can record their own music, and also have full control over mixing and editing from beginning to end. You can also learn about the operational techniques of a modern recording studio. We have a multitude of equipment and effects which can further enhance a camper's final recording. The studio has a control room, isolation booth, and a live band room.
The music made at Studio 59 is played on our own radio station, WBBC. Also, at the end of each summer, Studio 59 produces an exciting compilation playlist of camper recordings, a wonderful souvenir of the summer.
The Theatre department at Buck's Rock encourages the growth and development of campers, both as performers and as people. As a summer acting and theater camp, teens, junior campers, and CITs are given the opportunity to audition for any of our nine plays and musicals. We also host trips to play festivals in the area, which have proven to be increasingly popular.
Aside from our performances, we invite all those interested to participate in our TA (Theatre Arts) classes, which are run by our four directors and focus on various methods of acting as well as other skills such as improvisation, voice projection, stage combat, audition skills, etc. There are also other classes and workshops taught by professional guest artists and actors.
As well as acting, we encourage campers to try their hand at any other field of theater they might show interest in, such as design, stage management, or technical work, much of which is in done conjunction with the Set Design Shop, Costume Shop and Lighting and Sound Design, (or, as we call it, LSD).
