Someone once said you only get one chance to make a first impression.

That rule was turned on its head Monday at Lake City Playhouse as winter kids' camp participants dreamed up new personalities and showcased an impressive array of quirks and characteristics while introducing their new selves to each other several times.

Maddox Long, 9, of Coeur d'Alene, flopped his long shirt sleeves over his hands and did a silly walk.

“He is definitely a comedian,” said his mom, Jolena Long, who serves on Lake City Playhouse's board of directors and helped coordinate the three-day winter break camp.

The youths played an icebreaker party-introduction game called "Mr. and Mrs. Scratch" after a script read-through for a play written by middle schoolers in Lake City Playhouse’s after-school youth program. The winter camp students will perform the play for parents and family members this Friday.

“It’s the show that shall be named,” Long said. “Now that we’ve read it, we need to name it.”

It was the first winter camp at the playhouse, following a summer camp earlier in the year. The nonprofit theater organization has its sights set on expanding educational activities for children in the next year, with longer-term plans to offer instructional programming for adults interested in theater and stage craft.

“Our focus really is going to be on education," Long said. "Our goal is to definitely offer camps like this during all of the school breaks, spring, summer and winter, and our goal is to start offering adult workshops."

The ultimate goal of the inaugural winter camp was to teach third-through-eighth graders how to produce a theatrical show, with mentoring and guidance from Lake City Playhouse's teen board members serving as camp counselors.

“Some of these kids will draw sets, some kids will do some costuming, some kids will be actors and some kids will be a little bit of everything," Lake City Playhouse Artistic Director Brooke Wood said. "It’s mostly teaching them all the different assets of theater to make a show, celebrating all the pieces.”

Wood said some of the junior high kids were eager to learn back-of-the-house work in the theater world.

“It’s great to get those kids in here because that’s typically what’s lacking in theater, is the kids that don’t want to be on stage,” Long said. “We’re giving them an opportunity to be exposed to all aspects of theater and see where they fit within that. We’ve got something for everyone.”

Maddox just recently overcame a huge fear and sang in the Lake City Playhouse Christmas show."

"He’s pretty new to it," Long said. "His whole family does theater, but he is a comedian."

Maddox said he was having fun at camp and was excited to learn all about how a theater works.

“I just want to be better,” he said.

Ava Gabbert, 17, of Coeur d'Alene, discovered the playhouse over the summer and is now a member of the teen board. She said she was happy to volunteer for the winter camp because it was something she wished she could have done when she was younger.

“I only got into theater when I started high school,” Ava said, “so it’s really cool to bring it to more people knowing that I would have loved to do this.”

The winter camp cost $200 per participant, but Long said Lake City Playhouse prides itself on never turning a kid away for not being able to pay. 

“We did just recently get a grant for that purpose that does kind of help us," Ava said. "But we do take scholarships, so if someone is willing to sponsor a kid, then that allows us to make sure that we can be doing that."

Info: lakecityplayhouse.org

    Lake City Playhouse board member Jolena Long, left, and camp counselor Ava Gabbert prompt campers to go through lines Monday during the playhouse's first winter kids' camp.
  

    Maddox Long, 9, of Coeur d'Alene, adopts a silly walk on Monday as he plays a theater game with other winter campers at Lake City Playhouse.
  

    TaLise Lalanne, 12, of Coeur d'Alene, has a question about the script on Monday during the Lake City Playhouse winter kids' camp.