Express yourself, share your voice

Empowerment camp helps teens blossom

Her name was Geri, she said, and she was a songwriter from Roseville, Calif.

She shifted nervously when the group asked to hear a song. She offered to share the lyrics but was hesitant to sing. Finally, she agreed.

"It's called 'Me Versus the World,'" she said, then began to sing, softly. The room was silent until she finished, and then the audience burst into wild applause.

"Holy cow, Geri," Jennifer Julian said. "That was a really cool song."

Geri - really Megan Gluyas, 16, from Kalispell - beamed.

Gluyas and 24 other Flathead teens spent the week creating characters and learning acting techniques at a unique camp in Rollins.

Julian, a performer and Flathead native, helped found the Empowerment through Performance workshops series to encourage teens to find and express their unique creativity - to share their voices.

"I remember growing up I was hungry for a program in the arts like this - something unique that could help me really branch out and express myself," she said. "In rural areas there's not a whole lot of opportunity."

After graduating from Flathead High School and launching a successful stage, film, TV and radio career, Julian wanted to help young people looking for ways to express themselves, especially those in rural Montana.

She teamed up with Karen Borger, a writer and director, to create the Empowerment through Performance workshops, which teach teens to be comfortable on stage and increases their confidence.

The first workshops were held last summer at Rob Quist's Sweetwater Ranch in Creston. This week, 25 teens from the Flathead Valley have attended workshops at United Methodist Camp in Rollins.

The camp culminates today at 7:30 p.m. in a performance at Sweetwater Ranch. "Night at the Ranch" includes a hodgepodge of original sketches and songs, musical theater and scenes from Shakespeare.

Admission is free, but there is a suggested $10 donation at the gate. All proceeds will go toward scholarships for next summer's Empowerment through Performance workshop.

The workshop is geared toward at-risk teens, which really means it's a program for everyone, Julian said.

"We feel what 'at-risk' means is simply being a teenager," she explained, adding that many issues facing teens cross cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

She and Borger do look for applicants who will benefit most from the workshop. They look for teens who have a hard time expressing themselves, whose self-esteem could use a boost or who are a little shy.

The youths who attend don't have to be aspiring performers, Julian said. They might simply want to find the courage to stand in front of a group.

That's the purpose of "Che Che Cule," in which teens take turns leading the group in nonsense song and dance movements. Gluyas said it was one of her favorite camp activities; she loved leading her peers from the middle of the circle.

"It's to show people you're not scared to be in front of other people," she said of the game, then admitted that wasn't a fear she struggled with. "I'm a very active person. I like attention."

All of the activities included in the workshop were designed with a real-world focus in mind, Julian said.

"It's not just a drama camp," she said. "There's a point to each of these exercises."

Che Che Cule encourages kids to disregard the judgmental voices in their minds and find the freedom to act silly. A mirror exercise, in which pairs of students mimic one another to give the illusion of working opposite a mirror image, builds trust, teamwork and eye contact.

Creating and acting as new characters taps into imagination and teaches teens concentration and focus as they stay in character.

Some threw themselves enthusiastically into their new roles as male models, crotchety old women and professional pig catchers. Others, like Gluyas, were a little more self-conscious, but after encouragement from the group agreed to share their voices.

Sharing one's voice is about much more than mere volume, Julian said. The phrase encourages kids to share their unique thoughts and opinions.

"It means do it with commitment, with compassion and conviction," she said. "Most of these kids have grown up with negative reinforcement, negativity and criticism. Positive reinforcement is foreign to them.

"But that's when creativity blossoms: When you're told, 'You can' as opposed to 'You can't.'"

It can take a few days for teens to get used to the positive reinforcement, Julian said. She remembers one boy from last summer's workshop who was very reluctant to share his voice.

He "had the bangs over his eyes so you couldn't see his eyes, and a hood over the hair, and a hat over the hood," she said. "He was not going to let anybody penetrate through the walls he'd put up as protection, and he certainly wasn't going to share his voice."

When he wouldn't participate in one exercise, Julian asked the other kids to talk among themselves for a few minutes while she had a chat with him.

"I found out the reason he wasn't able to share his voice at all was because sharing his voice always meant in anger," she said. "He really didn't know what it meant to hear a positive sharing of the voice."

Over the course of the workshop, he gradually gained confidence. When it came time to perform for the community at the end of the week, he took the stage with the rest of the kids.

"For him to even be on stage with his hair out of his face, speaking a line, was a huge, marked improvement," Julian said.

Just a few days into this summer's workshop, Julian said she could see similar improvements in some campers. They already had begun finding the courage to stand in front of their peers and act silly, she said.

"At this age, they're so impressionable about what others think," she said. "They have to learn how to feel safe around others. We really try to create that here."

Creating that sense of safety comes through communicating with the kids and asking them what they need, Julian explained.

"Karen and I, we're just the guides," she said. "They do it all. They're amazing.

"It's really, really inspiring to sit back, facilitate that and watch it happen."

On the Web:

www.shareyourvoicefoundation.org

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.