Outreach and Boys & Girls Club Student Theater Showcase

A public showcase will be held Thursday, July 26, featuring musical and reading performances by local student participants of an innovative new summer camp program. The showcase is open to the public at the Boykin Gymnasium in Auburn starting at 5:00 p.m.

A collaboration of Auburn University Outreach and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Lee County, this major new arts program was developed and supported by University Outreach’s Center for Educational Outreach and Engagement (CEOE) and piloted during the Boys & Girls Club summer camps in Auburn, Alabama. The program was launched in June and runs through July.

Major features of the camp include The Reader’s Theater and Elocution Instruction, led by Mrs. A. Faye Boykin-Calhoun, 2007 International Toastmaster Hall of Fame Inductee, motivational speaker, bestselling author, dramatist, and creative artist. This experience enhances students’ reading skills, promoting their zeal to read more. The camp provides students a memorable introduction to theater performance designed to enhance their voice inflection, diction and articulation. The students have vast opportunities to create scripts, and make stories come alive by using countless emotions, gestures, and body language. Outstanding musical talent has also been incorporated with the usage of the Congo drums, tambourines, and microphones that add special effects. Controlled natural voice communication, leadership skills are used as well.

Students will showcase what they have learned from Reader’s Theater on Thursday, July 26th, at Auburn’s Boykin Gymnasium at 5:00 pm. During this event, the students will display their versatile music, production and reading talents, with the performances staged in the style and culture of Cameroon. In addition to excitement of performance, the showcase also helps build students’ confidence and experience in competition and presentation.

The event is free and open to the public. Please contact Dr. Venus Hewing, Center for Educational Outreach and Engagement at vrh0003@auburn.edu or (334) 844-5803, for additional information.