Camp Equinox

Creating Community and Confidence

WRITTEN BY KATIE GOODMAN

The little girl taps me on the shoulder and asks if she can have a turn. My eyebrows go up in surprise and delight. She’s been quiet and hanging back for most of the first week of camp.

I’ve been encouraging her to jump into an improv comedy game at Camp Equinox, our summer theater day camp in Bozeman. Last year was our 29th year, and after watching thousands of students come through our program over these past three decades, I’m not entirely surprised to see her perk up.

I have long been impressed with how theater, in and of itself, entices kids to develop selfconfidence—but that really sparks to life when it’s happening within a supportive community. The Camp Equinox staff believes that the first step is to create a noncompetitive atmosphere. Competition can kill one’s love of the arts and also cause a lot of self-doubt in children. The trick, we’ve found, is to nurture each camper’s delirious joy. When you’re joyfully playing, you don’t notice if someone is “better” or “worse” than you. There is no scoring or points, there’s no hierarchy, there’s no winning and losing. As a former athlete myself, I know how valuable sports are, but at the same time it sure is nice to have a space in a kid’s life where that’s just not what’s on their mind.

And those currents of supportive community run deep. During elementary and middle school, when kids have so many transitions and such intense social growth, and when families are potentially changing or moving or growing, the community that theater inherently builds allows kids a deep sense of belonging, joy and support.

Theater offers a place for kids to have a common goal, one that is really outside of themselves even though they are adding to it. It requires second-by-second teamwork as actors practice together, help each other learn lines, come up with creative things to add to a scene or musical number, practice singing and dancing and support each other as they offer ideas in an improv comedy game. And of course there’s the payoff: The show. But the bigger payoff: Community. And friends for life.

The little girl jumps into the improv game we call Cube. It’s a tricky game. Not for the faint of heart. But she’s been watching. Her little brain has been going all week long. Suddenly she seems really excited because she has an idea that she thinks will work. She jumps in, quickly working up a hilarious character that no one saw coming. She adds to what her teammates already had going. It’s smart and clever and rounds out the scene, and the whole group of 25 fifth graders burst out laughing and clap at her bravery and success. Their empathy shows through for this little girl who hadn’t, until this moment, felt confident enough. We’ve all been there. And the other fifth graders want to show her how proud they are of her.

The scene ends. She sits back down smiling.

Later that day over lunch, the kids tell another group what happened, replaying the comedy for others to hear, while she sits next to them listening and beaming.

Katie Goodman is the Co-Director of Camp Equinox.