Editor, Gazette-Journal:

This summer, the Court House Players hosted the Missoula Children’s Theatre in Gloucester and Middlesex. CHP has been hosting Missoula since 2001 and since then we’ve hosted 41 MCT summer camps with over 2,400 youth participants ages 5-18.

This year, we were fortunate to enlist over 120 children for the combined camps and introduce them to the world of theater and the arts. For those of you unfamiliar with Missoula, it’s a weeklong camp where children are given a hands-on introduction to the dramatic arts. It’s such a delight to watch these kids come into an artistic environment like this and truly flourish.

Besides developing an appreciation for the theater, these children learn about team building, public speaking and self-discipline. Through workshops, arts and crafts, and rehearsals, the children are able to tap into a creative force that many of them didn’t know they possessed. It’s especially exciting to see the shy ...