A Creative Approach for the Boys and Girls of Summer

Whether children are tots or teen-agers, summer can provide the free time and the opportunity to be exposed to new aspects of the arts. This summer, there’s a tremendous range of enrichment opportunities, from storytelling, music, ceramics and puppetry for the small ones to film animation, photography, theater and keyboard for older youngsters.

Some programs involve only watching and listening, but most allow total involvement: acting out a fairy-tale fantasy--such as a 3-year-old playing the wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood” at the Enchanted Forest workshop or a teen-ager performing in an almost full-scale musical at Northridge Park.

McGroarty Arts Center, 7570 McGroarty Terrace, Tujunga, (818) 352-5285. Built in 1923 as the home of Rep. John Steven McGroarty, the center is a Los Angeles historic-cultural monument. Now it’s primarily an arts center for children, under the supervision of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

Many courses are offered Monday through Friday; they range in price from $12 to $24 per two-month session.

The classes, which begin Monday, include preschool art potpourri, which features art, music, ceramics and fable-telling; preschool music for 3- to 5-year-olds; guitar workshop for 8- to 11-year-olds; puppet-making for ages 6 and older, and ceramics for ages 6 to 10 and 11 to 15.

Also offered are a course for young film animators, ages 6 to 8, which teaches children to make a story board and use a film camera to make an animated film, and film animation for teen-agers 13 to 17, which includes direction, production and the techniques of flip-books and trick photography. There’s also creative writing and drawing, both for children 6 and older; beginning and intermediate piano, for those 6 and older, and introduction to acting for 13- to 17-year-olds (acting classes are $36).

Brand Studios, 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale, (818) 243-8177. Two mini-camps and a selection of classes will be offered. The Fine Arts Camp, for ages 7 to 14, will offer drawing, painting, ceramics and clay. Courses meet from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. daily from July 17 to 28; the cost is $100.

A Performing Arts Camp, also for 7- to 14-year-olds and costing $100, meets during the same two weeks, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Music, drama and dance will be taught, culminating in an art show and a recital. Courses include drawing and painting, a nine-week class for those 7 to 12 taught at Brand Studios and Verdugo Hills Elementary for $30 plus a $6 lab fee.

Children’s crafts classes, for those 3 to 5 and 5 to 7, includes lots of the gluing and pasting activities that most parents prefer to have done outside the home. Keyboard, karate and ballet lessons are also available.

Kids Arts, 19642 Ventura Blvd., Suite B, Tarzana, (818) 248-2483. Sher Warren said, “One of the reasons people consider themselves untalented in art is that no one ever taught them how to make things look real.”

Warren and her husband, Ed, owners of Kids Arts, hope to remedy that by teaching realism basics to children 4 years and up and to adults. Their program is individualized, so students tend not to compare their work to the person sitting next to them. The courses--Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday mornings and Monday through Saturday afternoons--cost $48 a month for a one-hour weekly class and $72 a month for 1 1/2-hour classes, plus a $15 registration fee. Media used: charcoal, acrylic, watercolors, pen and ink, pencil, pastels and oils.

Everywoman’s Village, 5650 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Van Nuys, (818) 787-5100. Six-week, 1 1/2-hour classes range from hands-on clay to kite-making, ballet, breaking into TV commercials, piano, painting and drawing. For 3- to 5-year-olds, a Mommy and Me class with music is offered. Most classes are $44. The summer session begins July 18.

The Enchanted Forest, 20929 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills, (818) 716-7202. Call it summer theater camp by the day or by the week: For 4- to 9-year-olds, 9 a.m. to noon, $25 a day, Monday through Friday.

The Enchanted Forest offers a program of music, fantasy, theater, mime, dance, stage combat, magic, marionettes, shows and fairy-tale fantasies (where a child can act out a favorite character). Magic and marionette shows are held in the afternoons, for $5 a child, with group rates for 20 or more. Call for show times and dates.

Summer Youth Musical Comedy Workshop, Northridge Park, 18300 Lemarsh St., (818) 349-7341. A theater workshop that runs through Aug. 19 is designed for 8- to 16-year-olds with an interest (but not necessarily experience) in performing arts.

The show “Bye, Bye Birdie” will be produced by Adelle Steffes, with afternoon and evening performances in August. The sessions take place 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and cost $175.

Back Alley Theater, 15231 Burbank Blvd., Van Nuys, (818) 780-2240. “Max and Zoe, Zoe and Max” is billed as a “chickenpox adventure musical” for children 2 to 8. The one-hour show will go on at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays July 8 through Aug. 13. Tickets for children and adults are $6.50.

Pages Books for Children and Young Adults, 18399 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, (818) 342-6657, presents storytelling, crafts and a summer series of special events. Every Saturday at 11 a.m. through July 8 and at 10:30 a.m. July 15 to Sept. 2, a free story time with a related crafts activity will be offered.

At 10:30 a.m. on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, there’s a free “Now I Am Three” half-hour story time with music for 2- and 3-year-olds. There will also be several free mini-concerts and parties.

At 4 p.m. July 19, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marzer will perform American folk and country music. Children’s recording artist Craig Toubman will do happy beat and lyrical songs at 10:30 a.m. July 29. Cindy the Song Lady will do original songs at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 5; Bob Harrison will perform rhythms from adult jazz and rock music at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 19.

There will also be book signings and celebrations of such occasions as the 50th anniversary of Ludwig Bemelman’s well-known character, Madeleine (with free refreshments, games and favors) and the 50th-anniversary celebration of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.

Los Angeles County branch libraries in San Fernando, Santa Clarita, La Canada Flintridge. The summer theme for the libraries’ take-home reading program is “Wild About Reading, From A to Z.”

Supporting the programs will be branch activities that include storytelling, puppetry, creative drama, music, special films and special programs at selected libraries. At Lancaster Library, “The Multi-Cultural Minstrel Man” with Paul Tracy will feature storytelling and music. At Quartz Hill, a Childrens’ Film and Television Center of America program will be given on how a book becomes a movie. Times vary.

Los Angeles city libraries will offer a program called “Abracadabra, Disappear Into a Book,” backed by storytelling, films, crafts, discussion groups and magic. Performers will include clowns and magicians.

The goal of the program, said Susan Patron, senior childrens librarian, is to get children to read books they like. Plastic book bags and charts will help children track the books they read.

Burbank libraries will offer two programs at all three branches. One, also called “Abracadabra, Disappear Into a Book,” is for children who read; the program will offer magicians, mime, magic and childrens’ theater through Aug. 3.

A “Read Aloud” program for mothers and children will also be available, with special guests to add gusto to the story times. Call branches for specific dates and times.

The Los Angles Unified School District has 126 elementary school playgrounds, 21 junior high school playgrounds and all 17 of its high schools open this summer in the San Fernando Valley. There will be standard programs at the elementary schools, arts and crafts and common playground games that are free and open to anyone.

A set of traveling programs will also offer puppet shows, teaching how to make puppets and conduct a show; music enrichment, including guitars and storytelling, usually held in the library, and special games such as Pictionary.

Elementary and junior high schools are open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and high schools are open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and noon to 5 p.m. weekends. Call the school’s local playground director to get a schedule of events and programs.

Pierce College, 6201 Winnetka Ave., Woodland Hills, (818) 719-6425. A range of classes are offered from Mom and Me art for 3- to 5-year-olds to modern jazz dance for 9- to 13-year-olds.

There will also be crafts for 8- to 10-year-olds, drawing and painting for 5- to 7- and 8- to 12-year-olds, and exploring art for 7- to 10-year-olds, rock band and electric guitar for 13- to 17-year-olds, and keyboard for 9- to 15-year-olds.

Courses average $25 for six weeks of instruction. The college also offers a farm tour at 9 a.m. weekdays in July. For 50 cents a person, the 1 1/2-hour tour includes a close-up view of pigs, cows, chickens and horses, and a sense of what is involved in feeding and caring for them. Phone registration is required for all courses.

Valley College, 5800 Fulton Ave., Van Nuys, (818) 782-5539. Call (818) 988-3911 to register. Courses include ballet and tap for 4- to 7-year-olds, cartooning for ages 10 and older, jazz dance and baton twirling for 7- to 13-year-olds, basic drawing techniques for those 8 to 12, and magic for ages 10 and older. The six-week classes run through August, meet twice a week for 1 1/2 hours and cost $44 to $49.

Philomusica, 19642 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, (818) 342-3073, and 14401 Dickens St., Sherman Oaks, (same phone number). Gunther and Nicolette Bischos, once performers in the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bolshoi Ballet, teach a variety of music appreciation courses and lessons for children 15 months to 9 years old.

“Three- and 4-year-olds ask to hear ‘The Moldau’ by Smetana over and over,” said Nicolette Bischos, referring to the story about a river. The music appreciation classes teach the basics of music, from note reading and rhythm reading to developing an understanding of the instruments of the orchestra. Keyboard classes for children 6 and older, taught in groups of eight students, with eight full-size electronic keyboards and with two teachers, run for 45 minutes for eight lessons and cost $95.