Within the 2003 movie “Camp,” a gaggle of youngsters attend a summer season performing arts camp the place jealousy, competitors, and depth get the perfect of them. For many people, motion pictures like “Camp” are the one look we get into the within world of performing, feeding into the narrative that the business is a nasty one, and people who participate in it are mired by self doubt and pettiness. 

Whereas it’s true that the leisure business is usually a troublesome one, there are some who’re working to make that world as welcoming as potential – a spot that fosters expertise, not stymies it. For 41 years, Atlanta Workshop Gamers (AWP) has been actively contradicting the stereotype that “Camp” and its ilk put ahead. 

Based by Lynn Stallings, AWP is a nonprofit performing arts firm that goals to supply performers of all ages with a wholesome and supportive outlet for his or her craft whereas giving them professional-grade coaching on the identical time. 

Stallings stated AWP grew out of a want to supply younger performers skilled stage retailers for his or her abilities. 

“We created a touring firm, and the touring firm was a paid firm for teenagers,” Stallings stated about AWP’s beginnings. “We toured tons of and tons of of faculties all around the state doing socially accountable programming.”

The corporate carried out unique reveals, that includes themes resembling bullying, teen suicide, and different severe points that youngsters take care of, stated Stallings. Since AWP started in 1981, the performing arts group has expanded into the realm of tv and movie, and boasts quite a few camps, courses, and over 22,000 skilled college students – many who are actually working actors or have gone on to different careers within the business. 

Shannon Purser, who performed Barb on “Stranger Issues” and the titular function in “Sierra Burgess is a Loser,” Michael Provost from “Concern Avenue Half Two: 1978” and “Insatiable,” and Religion Salie from NPR’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Inform Me!” are only a few of AWP’s notable alumni. 

Salie, who began with AWP round 1983, stated AWP was a big a part of her adolescence. 

“It was so joyful, so wacky, so supportive,” stated Salie, who can be a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning and has carried out Off-Broadway. “We labored so onerous, however it was so enjoyable. That was the key sauce.” 

Salie stated that now, as a mom of two, she has extra respect for Stallings and the setting she remains to be capable of create for younger performers. 

“She managed to determine a manner not solely to let everybody shine, however to make us all really feel like a crew,” Salie stated. 

AWP’s motto is, “Youngsters altering the world, one viewers at a time.” Stallings has tried to make that saying a actuality. 

“It’s uncommon to seek out folks on this aggressive business who actually, genuinely, are thrilled when another person has successful,” Stallings stated. “As a result of they understand that one individual’s success isn’t their failure.”

The Firm 

Performers at AWP vary in age from 10 to younger adults. Its musical theater firm, which simply placed on “SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical,” normally rounds out at about 40 performers, Stallings stated. The entire firm members got here to AWP at totally different occasions and in numerous methods, however all of them share a love of efficiency and respect AWP’s supportive ambiance. 

“It’s very welcoming, it’s very supportive and pleasant, and also you don’t see that in plenty of performing areas,” stated Reyn Graves, who began with AWP in 2016. “I feel that’s one thing that we want.”

Ashlyn Stallings – who, as Lynn’s daughter, has been round AWP for her total life and now serves as a instructor – echoed that sentiment. She added that whether or not you’re within the firm, at a camp, or attending a category, AWP is a secure area. 

“As a result of it’s such a secure neighborhood and everyone seems to be so supportive, you’re feeling comfy attempting these new issues.” she stated. “Even for those who fall flat in your face, it’s not an enormous deal. Snicker it off, attempt once more.” 

To get into the corporate, you need to undergo an audition course of. The audition usually requires hopefuls to carry out an upbeat track, a ballad, a roughly 30-second dance mixture, and a monologue. For Rjai Jamison, 16, that is his first 12 months. He determined to audition after attending camp this summer season, the place he stated he realized a wide range of new expertise – together with juggling. 

“I realized to juggle. I assumed that was actually cool,” Jamison stated. “I actually prefer it as a result of not solely do I get to construct my movie and TV, I additionally get to construct my musical theater.” 

Joshua Tyrell, who additionally began with AWP pretty lately, has taken benefit of all of the alternatives which have come his manner in a really brief period of time. 

“In solely a 12 months, I’ve executed two camps, and a musical, and a 12 months’s value of courses,” Tyrell stated. “I’ve realized a lot, and I’ve met so many great folks.” 

For lots of those younger performers, working with these great folks is a part of what makes the AWP expertise so distinctive. Katie Johnson, 15, began with the gamers in 2018. She, together with Graves and one other performer, shared the function of SpongeBob on this 12 months’s musical. Stallings stated that almost all musical roles are double or triple solid, which lends the performers area to be taught to collaborate. 

“You get to department off of what the opposite individual does,” Johnson stated about working with one other actor, or her counterpart, as she referred to as it. “What we’d do is we’d discuss our character, and what would this individual do? What’s the perfect determination for them, what sort of transfer would they do on this a part of the track? So you need to work collectively so much.” 

Trade Expertise 

As a result of the coursework at AWP is so different, the gamers have the chance to find out about totally different points of the business exterior of their very own preliminary pursuits. Imaria Ayanna, who stated she’s aiming to maneuver into movie and tv performing, spoke excitedly a few voice performing workshop she had the chance to attend. 

Ayanna stated she didn’t understand how she was in voice performing till that workshop.

“I’d like to be a voice actor in an anime,” Ayanna stated. “You’re placing [your voice] to a drawing. It’s you, however it’s not your physique, it’s not your facial expressions. So you need to get all of that out with the sound of your voice.” 

Camps and courses at AWP embody totally different points of the business, and college students even have the chance to make actual, skilled movies. A kind of movies, a brief movie referred to as “(Dis)Linked,” gained the Viewers Alternative Award on the 2021 Variety in Cannes Brief Movie Showcase, a showcase for brief movies that takes place throughout the Cannes Movie Competition. 

“They’ve business professionals that information them, however they do it,” Stallings stated concerning the film making course of. “Which is fairly darn cool.” 

Two of the youthful members of the corporate, Emma Powell, 11, and Rowan Walsh, 12, spoke extremely of AWP’s Triple Risk class, which focuses on the three disciplines of singing, performing, and dancing. 

“Each week, we’d do one thing totally different,” Powell stated. “We bought to do your complete performing expertise.”

Walsh stated she appreciated the chance to develop in three totally different areas of performing with only one class. 

“I realized some new dancing expertise,” Walsh stated. “I actually bought to increase my stage presence and develop my voice.” 

Graves spoke extremely of a barely totally different, extra area of interest course that AWP affords. The category is known as “Xtreme Performing,” and provides college students the chance to follow performing in conditions which can be a bit exterior the norm.

“I’ve by no means seen anyplace that had an performing class fairly prefer it,” Graves stated. “It’s about these excessive conditions that you simply encounter in performing, like once you’re performing an excessive medical scenario, or once you’re doing a skydiving scene … issues like that, that you’ll encounter with performing which can be very onerous to do.” 

Lasting Impressions 

Years after she stepped out of the AWP bubble, alumni Religion Salie nonetheless holds her expertise there near her coronary heart. She stated that Stallings was one of many first folks she noticed deal with the humanities with a powerful sense of dignity. 

“I’ve thought of this so much as I’ve gotten older,” Salie stated. “Lynn handled us like … actual dwell human beings, it doesn’t matter what age we had been. She handled us like individuals who had been accountable, who deserved to be given duty.” 

Most individuals who communicate of AWP communicate of it such as you would a few household. For Stallings, most of the folks she works with on a regular basis are her household – her daughter and her husband, Don Stallings, each work at AWP – however the gamers really feel like an extension. 

And that extension solely retains on rising. Two years in the past, AWP moved to the Brandon Corridor Faculty campus in Sandy Springs and partnered with them to do a performing arts program for the varsity. Stallings serves because the director for the performing arts division, and stated the connection has allowed many BHS college students to take part with AWP.

“I’ve the perfect job on the earth,” Stallings stated. “I’m surrounded each single day by inventive people who find themselves wonderful, and joyful, and care about one another – actually care about one another. It’s a pleasure to rise up and go to work.”