Confidence To Last A Lifetime

(And Other Things I Learned In Summer Camp)

By Dani Driusso

 I walked through the doors on my first day of camp into a room full of kids who all seemed to know each other. I felt the nerves take over and a pit in my stomach as they called out what classes we were going to be in and shuffled us to our designated rooms.  I had spent weeks, maybe even months, trying to convince my ever-loving football family to “please… please… please” let me go to theatre camp. The thoughts of “maybe I made a mistake” and “maybe I don’t belong here”, fluttered through my brain as I began to feel queasy. I was sitting in the back of the room beside a girl with big curly blonde hair, when she leaned over and introduced herself. “Is it your first time?” she exclaimed with glee!  I responded “yes” while nodding nervously. “Don’t worry this is my 3rd year here, you’re going to love it!”. I felt a sense of ease wash over my body as she introduced me to more of the friends she had picked up in her various years at the camp. I began to see a pattern, people don’t just come here once, there’s a community here. Before long, the curly haired girl and I were inseparable. We ate lunch together, had huge laughs together and even signed each other's shirts on the last day before parting ways. I had so much fun and I begged my mom to let me come back year after year. Theatre camp became a part of my summer and a part of what crafted my confidence growing up. 

The nerves I felt meeting new people always came with the thought of “will I be too much for this person?” Or “how will I need to contain myself in this space to be liked?”. I never felt that way around theatre kids. There was never a laugh too loud or energy too bold in those spaces. Summer camp is where I first fell in love with the community that is the backbone of theatre. That community is what inspired me to get out of my comfort zone and start building drama clubs in my school with other students. The confidence I gained from those summers even inspired me to take charge and begin writing plays in high school, which made it to Drama Festivals. It followed me into my university years as a playwright, actor and creator. I continued to take that feeling with me as I graduated with my BFA and continued on with acting. It inspired me to work in personal and professional development to help cultivate communities where people can be seen for who they are and what makes them unique. I even became a self-published author of a book heavily influenced by my love for spaces where creativity and courage are celebrated.

There is something so magical about the spaces “theatre kids'' occupy, regardless of age. I’m 30 years old now and the safest places I feel I can be fully myself in is with theatre people. The experiences I felt as a child growing up in theatre have crafted the way I take up space now as an adult. Knowing my voice has value, that people are kind and supportive of parts of me that may feel “too much”. That my creativity and ability to play is valued just as much as the results I’m able to provide. I think the greatest lesson I continue to bring with me that I learned in summer camp all those years ago is that it is okay to fail, to look silly and to make mistakes. Worst case scenario, it goes terribly wrong and you find a creative solution to get back on track. The support I feel in theatre spaces has allowed me to be unafraid to look silly and to stand in the face of a problem without fear because I know a creative solution is just around the corner. I also know that one of the best ways to solve that problem is in collaboration with others. Asking “what skills do those around me have that could help me solve this?”, because as a cast, you utilize the skills of everyone in the room to create an overall production. Each person who enters that space regardless of who they were outside those walls, shows up to play, to express, and use their skills/passions. The amount of immediate support that happens in those spaces is unmatched.

Now as an instructor for Quest Theatre Summer Camps I get to witness these connections being made first hand. I get to watch the kids with soft voices break out of their shell and make lifelong friends they look forward to every summer. I get to see where the bold personalities find a supportive space to shine and encourage others to shine as well. I get to see kids explore skills they didn’t even know they had and share it with their peers in a space where nothing is too ‘out of the box’. I can’t wait to see what those kids create in the years to come and how they allow the spaces where they are celebrated to cultivate confidence to last a lifetime.