Professional actors, directors, and dancers teach kids their favorite stagecraft

• Expires Aug 17, 2012
• Limit 1 per person, may buy 2 additional as gifts. Valid only for option purchased. Reservation required; subject to availability. Must sign waiver. Must be between 4-18 years old. Not valid on company or backstage players.
• See the rules that apply to all deals.

• $45 for a one-week performing-arts summer camp for two hours each day (a $100 value)
• $59 for a one-week performing-arts summer camp for four hours each day (a $150 value)
• $109 for a two-week all-day performing-arts summer camp (a $300 value)

Professional performers share their expertise and encouragement with the young through acting, film, and dance camps with a focus on performance. Dancers learn steps to enliven show-tune performances. Amateur filmmakers create short, fantastical movies, then post them on YouTube. Preschoolers unleash their inner royalty in Disney-themed princess camps, in which they learn how to make their eyes take up 40% of their available face space. Music camps give kids a chance to belt their hearts out in a rock performance, and children put on fully realized productions of The Little Mermaid, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and The Stinky Cheese Man.

Donna Park's passion for performance preceded the bulk of her vocabulary: at 4 years old, she got into the habit of correcting the dance steps of the other children in her recitals. Her unquenchable thirst for performance led her through a theater minor in college to the discovery of film, then onto a career as a director, writer, and producer of television specials and commercials. Now, calling upon contacts developed during her 20-year career, she brings working professionals to Texas Creative Arts Academy to share their hard-earned wisdom with the young.

The Academy's year-round programs gather students aged 4 to 18 to celebrate their interest in dance, art, film, and melodrama. Aspiring artisans learn the basics of canvas and garment craftsmanship in Hi Ho! Van Gogh! and Design Fashion Diva! camps. Teachers unlock high notes in students' vocal ranges with voice lessons and train the eyes of future cameramen in video-production classes. Piano and guitar instruction empowers kids to realize a future where spontaneous public musical numbers don’t just happen on stage.