Last week, the second session of Creative Kids Camp ended a fun-filled two weeks with two performances of this summer’s production, The Cookie Caper. The show was a wonderful celebration of the various activities in the Community Center and its long history of bringing Greenbelters together. The children sang and danced beautifully to music by Christopher Cherry and choreography by Elta Goldstein. They were prepared by a staff of teachers, counselors and interns. This performance presented the children’s work over their two weeks of camp and celebrated the 80th anniversary of Greenbelt with its recognition of the history of the town.
The story of the play begins with campers reminiscing on their fun weeks at camp, but lamenting that their lives are not as interesting as that of Nancy Drew, without any criminals to catch or mysteries to solve. Soon enough, however, a mystery falls right into their laps. A batch of cookies has been stolen. The campers then follow a trail of clues that leads them around the Community Center to important places in the building, including the art and pottery studios, the nursery school and the dance studio. At every new place, there is a group of singing children to teach the audience about that room’s treasures. After making a wrong turn, the campers find themselves in the basement and uncover an old book in a compartment in the wall. The book turns out to be the diary of a girl named Dorothy Donohue from the year 1937, when Greenbelt was founded. Through this diary, the campers learn about what it was like to live in the brand-new town and attend school at the building that is now the Community Center.
Read more of this story in the July 20 News Review