Indie movie premieres at Turnage

Published 7:29 pm Friday, June 13, 2014

TONY BLACK | DAILY NEWS ON THE MARQUEE: Campers at the Beaufort County Arts Council’s “Let’s Make a Movie Camp” premiered their short film to an audience of friends and family on Friday night.

TONY BLACK | DAILY NEWS
ON THE MARQUEE: Campers at the Beaufort County Arts Council’s “Let’s Make a Movie Camp” premiered their short film to an audience of friends and family on Friday night.

 

The Turnage Theater played host to a movie premiere last night—a little known indie film that drew an appreciative crowd.

The crowd was family and friends of the stars; the stars, however, were the children who participated in the Beaufort County Arts Council’s “Let’s Make a Movie” camp this week.

Each morning, nine movie campers, ages 6 to 12, showed up to write, stage and star in their own movie.  The camp, the first in a series of performing arts camps, is a departure for the Arts Council’s summer programming, but one that has made the Turnage come alive, according to Joey Toler,

“It has been what I always imagine the Turnage should be: full of kids and full of activity. They have had a ball.” Toler said. “The fun thing is we’re doing the same thing next week, but it’s going to be theater.”

Toler said the good time being had by this round of movie campers has been infectious: not only are many of the movie campers signing up for theater camp, but they’re sharing the message with friends.

“We have close to 20 signed up and we can only take 24 children,” Toler said. “I believe the younger class is the most full class right now, but we still have openings for both sessions.”

Following the weeklong theater camp comes Broadway Kids Camp, a three-week long day camp that ends in a production of “101 Dalmations Kids” to which the public is invited.

Toler said signups for the camps have been coming fast and furious since he tapped into a key group on social media: Facebook pages started and run by local parents with insight into kids’ summer activities. Toler said he posted information about the upcoming camps and the result was immediate.

“The phone starting ringing: people asking for more information, could they sign up over the phone? It’s exciting,” Toler said. “I think these kids going out and talking about it — word of mouth — really helps.”

Next Friday night, the theater camp’s production will premiere at 7 p.m. The event is open to the public.