Luna Stage receives $28K from Orange Orphan Society for summer camps

WEST ORANGE / ORANGE, NJ — Luna Stage has received a $28,000 grant from the Orange Orphan Society to support its pay-what-you-wish Kids Theatre Camp and Teen Collaborator Intensive, and to install a new Green Screen Studio for use by both programs. The camps will run from Tuesday, July 6, to Friday, July 30, and will take place outdoors.

The Kids Theatre Camp explores acting, improvisation, playwriting and creativity, with weekly themes including Magical Mysteries, Wilderness Adventures, Clowning Around and A Big Finale. Each week will build toward a short culminating performance.

The Teen Collaborator Intensive is a four-week program focusing on acting and filmmaking. Each day’s activities fuse film and theater, with classes including on-camera technique, scene study, voiceover, film editing, playwriting, screenwriting, cinematography, animation and improvisation, and will make use of Luna’s new Green Screen Studio. The intensive will culminate in a public sharing of work created.

All Luna Stage classes are taught by professional theater artists in a warm and nurturing environment, and all skill levels are welcome.

The pay-what-you-wish model furthers Luna’s commitment to equity, ensuring that everyone has access to creative opportunities at a price point that feels comfortable to them. Luna launched this policy at the start of the pandemic and is grateful to be able to continue it for the foreseeable future.

This is the fourth and largest grant that Luna has received from the Orange Orphan Society to support their work with local youth. Previous grants have supported the creation of Luna’s Teen Touring Conservatory, allowed Luna to lead playwriting workshops in local schools and funded last summer’s Strangest Summer Filmmaking Program.

“We are thrilled to reopen outdoors with these vibrant programs for youth,” said Luna Stage Artistic Director Ari Laura Kreith. “It is thrilling to be able to create in-person again.”

“These programs build on the skills we nurtured virtually during the pandemic,” said camp Director Joey Yow. “The Green Screen studio will allow us to take digital creativity to a whole new level.”

“We are also grateful to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts for a $20,000 Covid Safety grant earlier this year to support our safe reopening,” added Kreith.

For more information and registration, visit www.lunastage.org.