I was invited by the Arena Stage board to come see their student theater program in action. Arena Stage, located in Washington, DC, is one of the premier theater companies in the city, and its youth theater program — conceived in 2005 — has grown into something remarkable.
I attended last year and had such a wonderful time watching the kids learn so much. The excitement they exhibited was contagious — as was the joy in the relationships between campers and counselors, and between the campers themselves. So when I was invited back again this summer, I couldn’t wait to attend. It’s become the highlight of my summer.
A program two decades in the making
Over the past two decades, the camp has grown into a full theatrical training ground for young people ages eight to 16. The curriculum goes far beyond acting — campers explore playwriting, lighting, set design, costumes, choreography, music, and musical writing, giving them a genuine sense of everything that goes into building a production.
The camp runs two sessions each summer — a three-week session and a two-week session — with each welcoming approximately 150 kids, drawn from across the Washington, DC-Maryland-Virginia area and from a wide range of economic backgrounds, from privileged families to underprivileged kids attending on scholarship. Last summer, the season culminated in a full production of Shrek, bringing together campers of every age across every aspect of the show. This summer, the camp took a different approach, with campers presenting weekly showcases throughout the sessions instead.
A community that sustains itself
The camp maintains a strong year-over-year return rate, and some former campers go on to become counselors themselves. Others have gone further still, joining Arena Stage’s professional ranks as actors, producers, stage managers, or crew working behind the scenes — a pipeline run by a staff of 38 instructors, accompanists, administrators, and counselors-in-training.
A meaningful share of campers attend on scholarship each year, helping ensure the program remains accessible to families of all backgrounds. This year, a few scholarships went specifically to standout returning students through the Friends of Southwest program — including two eighth-graders who’d grown up in Voices of Now throughout middle school, and who used the summer to stretch into disciplines like sculpture, painting, playwriting, and drawing room comedy alongside their musical theater work.
What I saw this summer
This summer I attended a lunchtime showcase — part improv, part camp-wide celebration — with roughly 100 kids and several teachers in the audience. What struck me was the support these children gave one another. Performers ranged from age eight to 16, and yet every camper who took the stage got the same enthusiastic backing from their peers, complete with a football-stadium-style wave rippling through the crowd.
What I admired most was their self-confidence and poise up there — kids who, just weeks earlier, were strangers to one another, now performing with a kind of ease and assurance that made me smile from ear to ear. They also played a Jeopardy-style game to identify fellow campers from photos and quotes, and after less than three weeks together, they could recognize one another instantly — a small but telling sign of just how tightly the campers and staff had bonded.
At a time when the world feels so upside down, watching these kids felt like exactly the prescription we need.
A passion renewed
This isn’t new territory for me. For many years I served on the New York Philharmonic’s volunteer council, focused on education, and for two decades I had the privilege of teaching young people — privileged and underprivileged alike — about classical music: its evolution, its language, and how to hear and appreciate it. Involvement in the arts, and in bringing that world to the next generation, has always been a passion of mine. Watching the campers at Arena Stage this summer, I felt that same purpose again — the chance to help kids discover something in the arts that will stay with them long after the curtain falls.
A bigger takeaway
Much like the FIFA World Cup brings people together across differences, this camp shows kids of all backgrounds and races working, growing, and bonding side by side. It’s an opportunity not just to learn art and culture, but to practice collaboration — and perhaps, as these kids grow older, to carry that spirit forward as ambassadors for both.
And perhaps, much like a great play that endures for decades or even centuries, the relationships these children form with one another may prove just as lasting — resonating and sustaining them for a lifetime.
The cover image is credited to Arena Stage.
This summer I attended a lunchtime showcase — part improv, part camp-wide celebration — with roughly 100 kids and several teachers in the audience. What struck me was the support these children gave one another
