Arts council awards fellowship grant

This grant will contribute substantially to a theatrical production of "Pure Imagination with Willie Wonka."

Project Summer Fun at Henkle Middle School and White Salmon Valley Drama Department will be working together this summer to provide summer visual and performing arts opportunities for this production.

Project Summer Fun begins June 14 for up to 50 new fifth through seventh graders and will include invention labs, poster art, a graphic design project, radio/podcast sessions, and a mural project to create stage scenes and props for the HMS Drama Camp's production "Willie Wonka."

Project Summer Fun, staffed by certified teachers, also offers field trips, science, reading and math activities that will be thematic in nature.

The two-week White Salmon Musical Theater Camp will commence on July 5th "piggy backing" the last two weeks of Project Summer Fun. The musical production of “Willie Wonka” is open for kids in third through eighth grade and includes singing, dancing, acting in individual and group formats.

The camp will be directed by volunteers Jennifer Graves, HMS drama instructor; assisted by CHS drama members and the CHS music director Shandra Rampersad.

There will be two performances of "Willie Wonka:" a matinee July 15 at 10 a.m. at the last day of Project Summer Fun, and a community performance to follow that evening at 6:30 p.m.

The White Salmon Arts Council Fellowship Grant will go toward paint, artist fees for the mural (Janet Essley is planning the murals with staff now), and minor incidentals. Most of the other materials needed for this program were obtained through the 21st Century CLC grant for Project Summer Fun, drama department, and PTO support.

The drama camp is also listed on the North Side Community Ed Website with scholarship support for interested students who cannot afford the fee.