Every camper needs a role! Just like everything else we do at camp, we need to make sure that there is full participation with camp skits. Even the shiest camper can contribute to a great camp skit. How do you assign roles to each camper? Well, in addition to acting parts, here are some roles you can assign to your campers to maximize participation in this activity:

• Director
• Assistant Director
• Screenwriter or scriptwriter
• Tech crew
• Props crew
• Actors
• Extras

How do you know which roles to assign to which campers? Sometimes the “behind-the-scenes” roles – like writing the script or managing the props – are perfect for those shy campers who haven’t quite come out of their shell. Or the more introverted campers who want to help out but don’t enjoy large speaking roles in front of the whole group. Who’s the artsy or creative camper in your group? Maybe assign them to some creative roles, like set design or screenwriting. For example, if you’re doing the invisible bench skit, assign a camper to write a list of different reasons that the bus driver character can use to kick people off the bus. On the other hand, which of your campers is good at seeing the ‘big picture’? Or maybe is a little bossy – but in a good way! Maybe assign that camper as director. This camper may or may not have an acting role in the skit, but their job is to watch the skit during rehearsals and see what is working and not working.

However, also want to be careful that you don’t assign this role to the most outgoing, most active camper. They are most likely the campers who are already doing everything anyway! Instead, use this opportunity to draw another camper out of their shell and feel valued. Who has potential to be a great leader among their peers, but isn’t often given the opportunity to do that? Or the camper who tries to volunteer but is often talked over or cast aside accidentally. You might have a great leader in the making, but it’s not the camper who volunteers for and does everything else in your group.

Above all else, your camp skit should include every single camper in your group. But what if just a few of my campers just want to do a skit? Outside of our cabin group? Use your professional judgement here, but keep in mind that as much as camp skits make campers feel connected to each other, they can also make campers feel alienated if they’re left out of a particular skit. As with every other activity at camp, you want to make sure that there aren’t “cliques” or exclusive groups forming within your cabin group. If you start to notice that the same handful of campers want to do everything together, then it is your responsibility as their leader to think about the larger cabin group as a whole and encourage maximum participation of everyone in your group.

Practice, practice, practice! We all know that practice makes perfect. The key to making a great camp skit is to rehearse it over and over again. However, there is only SO much time in the day. How do you fit into time to practice when there is so much going on at camp? Your campers want to play archery, and then it’s time to swim in the pool, and before you know it, it’s dinner time.

The key to making time for something at camp is to never have any “dead” time. What about those 15 minutes while you’re waiting for the archery instructor to set up the bows and arrows? Use that free time to practice your skit for the campfire that night. Or, what about when you’re waiting outside of the mess hall for lunch to be served? Or, when you’re walking from one camp activity to another? While it may be difficult to actually rehearse something while you’re walking, you can still use that time to practice rehearsing lines or review the skit’s plot and camper assignments.

So, now you’ve assigned camper roles for your camp skit, and you’ve rehearsed the skit a bunch of times. What else do you have to do to ensure that you’ve got a great camp skit? It all comes down to performance. How your group is performing the skit. Here are some tips and tricks:

• Be LOUD
  • When practicing a skit, encourage your campers to be louder than they think they should be. Why? Well, because, when we actually perform something for real, often times our nerves get the best of us. And we get shy, which means we’ll be quieter than we should be. Practicing with a LOUD voice can help your campers get comfortable with the lines, and serve as a muscle memory to enunciate when actually performing the skit.
  • Just like when we sing camp songs, such as “yeah toast” or “jig a low”, we need to be loud and proud!
• NO backs to the audience
  • Never, ever, ever should your campers have their backs to the audience when practicing or performing a skit! Make this muscle memory – if you see a camper start to turn their back during rehearsal, correct them immediately. Make it second nature for them to be aware of this.
  • For example, if you’re doing the royal paper skit, you want the audience to be able to see the toilet paper roll at the end of the skit. If the camper delivering the toilet paper at the end of the skit has their back turned, the audience won’t be able to see what’s happening!
• PAUSE before a PUNCH LINE
  • Your campers work so hard to put on this great camp skit, and the worst thing would be to mess up the punch line at the end! So, whoever is delivering that final punch line, make sure they’re saying it CLEARLY and LOUDLY, and even encourage them to PAUSE before they say the punch line. They should make sure the audience is listening – no laughter or chants happening – so everyone can hear the final line. We wouldn’t want anyone in the audience to say or think, huh?, after a camp skit!
  • For example, if you’re doing the lawnmower / need a big jerk camp skit, and the final camper says, “I guess all we needed was a big jerk”, make sure the camper takes a pause before that last line, and says it loudly and proudly!