Children's Theatre Workshop At Mt. Helix Park Begins Saturday

While most theater workshops take place indoors, Lana Hartwell uses Mother Nature as an outdoor theater.

For more than four years, Hartwell has directed her Children's Theatre Workshop at Mount Helix Park. Spots are still available for the spring session, which begins on April 2 and runs through May 7.

“Look at Mount Helix—I’m so blessed to get to teach there at such a beautiful, hidden jewel, right in the middle of our community,” said Hartwell, the owner and director of Children's Theatre Workshop. “It’s really just the perfect place to teach. The kids just thrive up there.”

Every Saturday from 9:30-10:45 a.m., children ages 5-14 will learn how to project their voices, do warm-up and relaxation techniques and practice other acting skills. Her students work on improvisation, as well as individual and group pieces.

At the end of the six-week session, each participant will perform a monologue or solo during the sunset performance on Sunday, May 8, which is Mother’s Day. They also have a group presentation. At last session’s evening performance, the group performed Journey’s "Don't Stop Believin.' "

“It’s going to be a chance for the kids to give back to their sweet mommies and daddies by getting up there and singing their heart out or reciting something,” Hartwell said.

While some participants have acted before in community or school productions, others have never acted before. Some parents, Hartwell said, enroll their children to help them overcome their shyness.

“I’ll be honest, I’ve had one or two that I could tell at the beginning they really didn’t want to be there,” she said. “But at the end of the six weeks, I couldn’t get them off the stage. They just become so enamored with all the other kids around them that are having so much fun, and without realizing it, they start learning acting skills, too.”

After earning her performing arts degree from San Diego State University, Hartwell moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career. Hartwell did commercials, voiceover work and dinner theater. She continues to perform at the San Diego Civic Light Opera, the Starlight Theater and to do anything else she can to get her “creative spirit exercised.”

“But I also found that I had a lot to give back for the little kids,” said Hartwell, who grew up in Clairemont. “I’m childlike still, myself. I still have that sense of wonderment and joy from performing. You see little kids do it all the time naturally when they’re just playing.”

Hartwell also has an after-school program at Murdock Elementary School and teaches at Cuyamaca College. She has partnered with other people to produce student productions during the last 15 years, but discovered that she enjoyed focusing on teaching rather than working on large-scale productions. Therefore, she formed Children's Theatre Workshop.

“I get most of my joy, all of my joy, from the one-on-one teaching, teaching skills and watching them grown from week to week,” she said. 

In addition to the spring session, Hartwell also offers a summer session held at Mount Helix Park on Saturday mornings from 9:30-10:45 a.m. The summer session will begin July 16 and end with a sunset performance on Aug. 21. The sessions cost $120 each. 

“It’s a safe, fun, creative environment for their young person to come up and learn some acting skills and be a part of putting on a production from beginning to end,” Hartwell said. “If they come to the final performance, they’re going to be wowed. That setting up there is so gorgeous at sunset, and we see these young people of our community up there using this beautiful outdoor space.”

For more information or to sign up, contact Hartwell at queenlana@cox.net or 619-442-6699.