Summer arts camps on Liberty’s campus teach top-level skills with a faith mindset

Close to 200 campers from elementary through high school have spent the last few weeks engaging with the arts at Liberty University as part of the annual School of Communications and the Arts summer camps in which faculty and current students mentor aspiring artists from different disciplines.

This is the 14th year that Liberty has offered the high school theatre camp, called Theatre Uncut, and the third year it has added options for dance and film and offered Uncut Jr. middle school camps. While campers have mainly come from Virginia and North Carolina, 11 states were represented in total, including California and Florida.

“There are a lot of returners, and our numbers continue to grow each year,” said summer arts coordinator Chris Nelson, a theatre professor.

The camps began with the Liberty University Theater Camp for elementary ages, which culminated in a performance of “Disney’s Winnie the Pooh KIDS,” followed by Uncut Jr. camps for middle school students interested in theatre, dance, or film. High school students studied theatre or film this past week.

In the Film Uncut camps, students go through the entire filmmaking process, culminating in their own individual short films that they have written, acted in, shot, and edited themselves. Campers use the department’s equipment, editing labs, and other facilities.

Brodie Sell, the director of the film camps and an adjunct professor for the Cinematic Arts, Zaki Gordon Center, said the program is designed for all levels of experience.

“We have campers that represent the full range of (familiarity) with filmmaking; we have some that are brand new to it but are interested in it, and we have others who have tried making their own short film and have a good amount of experience coming into the camp. The goal is to meet them wherever they are and help them either grow in new areas or hone in on an aspect they’re particularly interested in. For a lot of these students, this is where they can learn how technical skill meets creativity in order to create art.”

At the end of both the middle school and high school camps, the theatre and dance campers showcased their work with a cabaret in the Tower Theater. The film campers had a red-carpet premiere of their short films.

High school campers in both Theatre Uncut and Film Uncut heard from alumnus Joel Ashur (’15), a graduate of the Department of Theatre Arts who has found a career in both stage and screen acting, including the leading role of Samson in a production by the entertainment ministry Sight & Sound. David Hahn, chair of the School of Music’s Michael W. Smith Center for Commercial Music, and music professor Nirva Ready also spoke to students about the musical side of theatre.

“It’s a very hands-on experience with the masterclasses and (provides) opportunities for students to get feedback, be critiqued, and be mentored about best practices, and I think it’s great for the students to hear from all of them,” Nelson said.

When the high school campers are introduced to the high caliber of Liberty’s programs, professors, and student body, many make the decision to enroll at Liberty.

“We hear from a lot of students who attend the camps and then enroll at Liberty; participating in the camp was sort of the final decision-maker for them,” Nelson said. “They felt at home, they got to experience the school, they did what they love, and they saw the worth of pursuing it.”

Sell noted that the upcoming fall semester will be the first in which former campers who chose to enroll in Liberty’s cinematic arts program will be participating in the department’s projects.

What sets Liberty’s arts camps apart, Nelson explained, is that the staff works to remove the excessively competitive and sometimes “antagonistic” environment that some performing arts schools carry. Instead, campers are encouraged to find their identity in Christ and support one another.

“We show the students that they can have the goal of performing and being cast, but there doesn’t have to be knives in the back of others,” he said. “There will always be disappointment in this world of performance when someone doesn’t get what they hoped for, but that’s just how the world is, and yet they learn that that doesn’t have to overcome them. It’s a place where they don’t have to hide or apologize for being a Christian. We want to help them understand who they are in the Lord and how they can use that in the arts.”