A theatre kid. Does the image of an artsy-fartsy teen wearing all black and sipping coffee come to mind? How about the image of a down and dirty teen roughing it in the wild? Well, Chantilly High School’s International Thespian Society (ITS) recently offered a weekend camping extravaganza in Prince William National Park.
It all started last spring, when Chloé West, the current Vice President of ITS, suggested the idea. Director Ed Monk “agreed, under the circumstances that Director Shannon Khatcheressian would come, of course at the time [he] didn’t know she loved camping.” Director Ed Monk still stayed true to his word, allowing Chloé to plan the trip for the fall.
The trip was planned for the Sunday and Monday of Columbus Day weekend. The extreme rain in the days leading up to the trip, threatened to cancel it. Director Shannon Khatcheressian expressed her concern, “I was afraid that the ground would be too wet and it would be too cold during the night.”
But the rain stopped, the sun came out and the trip went on as planned. The kids started to arrive early afternoon Sunday and the only odd sight was watching the occasional air mattress, and even one cot, disappear into the hotel sized tents.
Sunday afternoon started with a nature walk, which quickly became wading in the first creek they ran into. A pyrite — commonly know as fool’s gold — mine used to be located upstream, so the streams are still littered with pyrite dust and small pieces. So, the time was spent searching for “gold” and crawfish. Once the sun went down the night was filled with food, campfires, theatre games, scary stories, and good old non-electronic fun.
Monday morning, before returning home, the students play a couple intense games of capture the flag, and gave each other camp names, including Nature Boy, Dances with Waterfalls, and Peaceful Morning.
Everybody returned home to their computers and video games, though all hopefully having learned from the few days of “roughing it” without electronics — thankfully there were flush toilets. Eddie Monk and ITS Member “loved the camping trip, [he] thought it was a cool opportunity to bond with his fellow thespians and do something new and different.” Due to the positive experiences of all who were involved, Chantilly ITS hopes to make the fall camping trip a tradition.