Fairfield Preteens Prepare To Take the Stage

FAIRFIELD, Conn. — Put a photographer in front of most 8- to 12-year-old kids, and you’ll struggle to get them to focus on anything else. But that's not so with the Fairfield Preteen Players. The young campers are far too busy on any given day, learning their lines and choreography.

“I start the summer program with a little speech: ‘If you’re looking for a camp to goof off and fool around, this isn’t it,’” says Christine DeAndrade, the camp director. “Because they work.”

DeAndrade started the Fairfield Preteen Players a decade ago as an offshoot of the Fairfield Recreation Department’s Teen Theater group. Each year, she takes a group of young Fairfielders interested in theater and puts them through four weeks of rehearsals for the main event: a professionally managed stage show. This year’s production is “The Jungle Book.”

The camp has also touched so many students that some of her first pupils are returning as counselors. Lauren McKulla, for example, was in the inaugural production of “Annie Jr.” in 2002. Now 18, she shares her love of theater with the younger campers.

“I love seeing it go from the beginning to the end product,” McKulla said. “It starts off as nothing — they don’t know their lines, they don’t know what they’re doing. Then you get to the show and it’s like, ‘Wow. They can do it.’”

Demand has grown so high that DeAndrade added a second session. She now teaches about 30 kids in both the mornings and afternoons, each group gearing up to perform its own show next week. DeAndrade said she’s also considered adding a third group but has resisted, saving herself from exhaustion.

After all, DeAndrade spends most of the year directing a Stratford preschool. The time she spends with the Preteen Players is her “vacation.” But she said she never once considered taking a year off from the camp. “I can’t give this up,” DeAndrade says. “It’s my baby.”

The Fairfield Preteen Players’ production of “The Jungle Book,” goes live at 7 p.m. Friday, July 22, and Saturday, July 23, in Fairfield Warde High School’s auditorium. Tickets are available for $10 at the door or by calling 203-259-8232.

Know of any other great summer camps around Fairfield? Tell us which ones you’d like to see a story on in the comments below.

Click here to follow Daily Voice Fairfield and receive free news updates.