A week at Bootcamp produces dazzling performances

Published by Homer Independent Press

August 13, 2026

Staff report

In six days, Aug. 3 to 8, 20 middle and high school students and three alumni performers gave everything they had to deliver a dazzling show of Broadway medleys, dramatic monologues, comic sketches and vocal solos.

The cast (left to right) Lilly Quinn, Dayus Geysbeek, Kara Crow, Olivia Barnett, Rosalina Smith, Shaylee Schweitzer and Sadie Peterson perform in a medley from “Mary Poppins” on Aug. 8 at the Mariner Theater in the culminating Bootcamp Commuity Performance after six days of intensive training in acting, choreography, diction and singing. *(Marcia Kuszmaul/HIP)*

Six instructors from New York, Los Angeles and Homer coached them in acting, choreography, dialect and vocal performance. A crack local production team handled costumes, set construction, lighting, sound and much more.

Their “hey-kids-let’s-put-on-a-show” moment came Saturday night, Aug. 8, when the house lights dimmed and the stage lights blazed, and they put it all out there for friends, family and community in the culminating Bootcamp Community Performance at the Mariner Theater.

Celebrating the third annual camp, Director Jim Anderson writes that Broadway Bootcamp is more than the show.

“Through creative arts-based training, people learn empathy, compassion, gratitude, confidence and many other positive feelings and attributes while laying the foundation for long-term growth,” he writes.