The Herald-Palladium, 6/27/2010

Taking the stage

Doug Fordyce’s camps for kids teach more than just how to be a performer

By JEREMY D. BONFIGLIO
H-P Features Writer

ST. JOSEPH — Morgan Piontek taps her foot as Taylor Swift’s “You Belong To Me” begins to play.

The 9-year-old from Plainfield, Ill., pulls the microphone to her lips and begins to sing the familiar lyrics.

You’re on the phone with your girlfriend, she’s upset/She’s going off about something that you said/’Cause she doesn’t get your humor like I do …

Dressed in a red T-shirt emblazoned with the Stars and Stripes in the shape of the continental United States, Morgan glides across the stage as she gives her best “American Idol” style audition. But by the time she hits the chorus, Morgan is already struggling to find the pitch, and, at times, her soft voice becomes lost in the backing track blaring from the CD player behind her.

Despite her struggles, Morgan finishes the Swift hit with a smile and stands center stage as Doug Fordyce carefully chooses his words.

“I think your positioning and movement is really, really good,” he says, placing his hand on a video camera. “ But I think when you watch this back you’ll realize it was too quiet and a little pitchy. Of course, you chose a really hard song to do. I’ve had people who’ve been doing this a long time that have had just as much trouble with that song.”

Piontek isn’t discouraged. She steps off stage with her head held high and passes the microphone to the next performer at Fordyce’s Future Stars camp – the second of five summer camps by his Kids On Stage theater company.

It’s that confidence, more than any vocal prowess, that Fordyce holds most dear.

Since 1996, the St. Joseph resident has dedicated his life to using the performing arts to develop life skills in children from first through 12th grades. His Kids On Stage performance camps have become a summer staple, and his company’s annual two fully staged theatrical performances have won a total of eight National Youth Theatre awards and been nominated for three others.

“We’re not here to raise the next ‘American Idol,’” Fordyce says. “If they go on and have a career doing this, that’s great. But what this is really about is building self-confidence, communication skills and teamwork.”

Fordyce also was a child performer who spent his early years in Indianapolis where he “did quite a bit of theater.” When he was 10 years old, he was cast in the Avondale Playhouse’s summer stock theater production of “Peter Pan” opposite Kathryn Crosby (Bing’s wife) and Tony award winner Vincent Gardenia, who may be best known for his Oscar-nominated role in the 1987 film “Moonstruck.”

“We were in rehearsal for two weeks and performed for two weeks in Indianapolis and two weeks in Louisville,” Fordyce says. “I was paid $275. Two hundred of that went to (Actors’) Equity (Association Membership) but I took that $75 and bought a brand new 10-speed bike. I just thought that was awesome.”

His family moved to South Bend, and after graduating from Clay High School his passion for the arts took a back seat for a time. Fordyce went to divinity school in Joplin, Mo., and spent the next several years in ministries in Oklahoma and Wichita, Kan., before eventually moving to Southwest Michigan.

“When I was working for the church in music and education, we decided to do a summer camp for junior high kids,” Fordyce says. “What the junior high kids didn’t know is that we decided that they were going to have to work together to create a play and put on a performance on the last day of camp. By the end of that week they were just having a blast. Everything since then has just morphed from there.”

Fordyce returned to the stage himself in the Twin City Players’ 1994 production of “Pump Boys and Dinettes.” He also produced a stage show with 25 children for TCP, but when he realized the theater company didn’t have the capability at the time to consistently do that type of show, Fordyce decided to go out on his own.

In 1996, he founded the Children’s Music Workshop, which operates with a similar model of camps and stage productions. Eight years ago, however, Fordyce walked away from CMW to form Kids On Stage with his wife, Jeri, a nurse who works for Lakeland HealthCare.

“I had founded it and built it up and helped bring it to nonprofit status but in the end it didn’t work out,” Fordyce says of CMW. “And that’s all I’ll say about that.”

Fordyce says his values for Kids On Stage are simple. It’s about teamwork and accountability, commitment and hard work. Then there’s the word that he emphasizes almost exhaustively – fun. The word has even become part of a ritual before any Kids On Stage production.

“We’ll all gather on stage behind the curtain and I’ll ask ‘What’s the most important thing to do tonight?’ and they shout ‘Have fun!’” Fordyce says. “We do that a couple of times until we’re loud enough that the audience can hear us.”

Talk to students who have studied under Fordyce, however, and they’ll quickly tell you that they’ve learned much more than how to have fun on stage.

“When I first came here I think in the sixth grade I hadn’t sung in front of anyone before,” says Allie Hoyt, 18, a Niles High School graduate who is now the choreographer for Fordyce’s summer camps. “I was that shy girl with her head down. I not only learned that I could sing but the confidence to be able to sing. It’s definitely helped me be able to speak clearly to people. In fact, I had an interview for a college scholarship and it was six people at a table asking questions. They even asked me if I had practiced my answers and I got the scholarship.”

Fordyce also points to current camper Natalie Rush, 11, of St. Joseph, who has had a particular performance breakthrough this week. Natalie has struggled to show emotion during her performances, Fordyce says, so he suggested she sit on a stool and sing.

The trick worked.

Fordyce gets choked up after Natalie sings a song from the musical “13.”

“You get a little emotional when a kid works so hard and then they just get it,” he says. “It makes you want to cry.”

It’s that passion that keeps Fordyce’s students coming back.

In addition to the Future Stars Camp, Fordyce has already held the weeklong Music Art Dance and Drama camp for children entering kindergarten through the fourth grade. His Super Trouper Musical Theatre Camp for grades 5-12 begins Monday, and his Junior Trouper Music Theatre Camp for grades 3-9 begins July 26.

Fordyce has also held auditions for a new Kids On Stage Glee Club, a performance group made up of 7th-12th graders who will learn and perform song arrangements from the popular “Glee” television series. That’s in addition to the full theatrical performance of “Beauty and The Beast” this fall and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” in the spring.

“I just love these kids,” Fordyce says. “And I love being able to teach them life lessons through the performing arts. When a kid comes to me with their head down and introverted and then after being a part of this for a few years I see them get introduced to someone and their head’s up and they’re speaking with confidence, for me that’s when the ball goes out of the park.”

jbonfiglio@TheH-P.com