NASHUA – With its young actors ready for their close-up, the Peacock Players will hold their summer theatre camp series July 12 – August 13 at the Alpine Grove in Hollis, the host for this year’s summer activities.

Peacock Players artistic director Keith Weirich said that pivoting to summer theatre camp has been exciting and that the planning stages began throughout the onset of the coronavirus.

“Well in truth, we were in a very lucky position to be able to continue throughout the pandemic,” he said. “The focus has been to keep the kids engaged virtually and then I’d say after the first of the year, we very carefully tiptoed back into in-person programming in very limited-capacity numbers.”

Weirich said that meant strictly adhering to regulations and policies and procedures in place. That includes following CDC guidelines and New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services as well.

“We want to make sure that we’re current and up-to-date with everything,” he said. “We immediately got vaxxed as soon as we possibly could. And we were really hoping that, as it has been a good 18 months or so, that we would be able to truly reunite. But we’ve been busy throughout, which has been nice because it’s kept us sharp on everything so we moved to a lot of outdoor performance opportunities for the kids and for our patrons.”

Obviously, the winter presented a set of challenges but Weirich is excited that the summer theater camp will take place at Alpine Grove.

“It’s not the size but at least it’s moving towards larger and larger groups,” he said. “We still have them isolated in groups, but now they’ll be able to reconnect with each other, mostly in an outdoor setting for the summer.”

The city of Nashua has given Peacock Players permission to reopen as of September at the Court Street Theatre.

“I know that a lot of the professional theater companies are reopening this summer,” Weirich said, “in a wide variety of hybrid situations. We’ll continue to monitor the situation and we have planned a full season. Luckily, we haven’t really skipped a beat. We’ve been fortunate enough to stay on top of all the guidelines and what’s currently trending nationwide.”

The Peacock Players’ mission is simple: to bring the best in award-winning theatre and theatre arts education to the southern New Hampshire region. In addition to producing mainstage productions each season, Peacock Players provides year-round educational programs and select community outreach performance groups.

Weirich said the theatre production company has been taking a note from epicenters of the performing arts in major cities such as New York and London.

“But we’re also looking at what’s happening on the local front,” he said. “The local theatres have the privilege of reopening a little faster than Broadway or the West End. We’ve been taking a lot of our cues by watching what other professional companies are doing.”

Weirich said there are times when he’s “waiting for the other shoe to drop” adding that perhaps that’s what COVID has taught us all.

“Wanting to have or make things better doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to happen that way,” he shared. “We want to make sure we’re being safe and getting our kids and our artists re-engaged and back together again.”

The reaction to theatre summer camp, according to Weirich, has been mixed around the state. But for the Peacock Players camp, it has been very positive.

“In fact, we were getting quite a bit of reach-out,” he explained. “From the students and the parents, in our community, the message has been very vocal and very positive about getting together and reuniting.”

In northern parts of New Hampshire, the theatre arts for kids has been rather tentative. But Weirich praised the Nashua-area community and said PP normally serves 375 kids at summer camp.

“This summer, we’ll serve 300,” he said. “To me, that seems like a strong return. And that’s based on numbers, not feelings. It will be really interesting because the kids have been separated in some regards. Some of them haven’t even been to school for a year. I’ll probably have a better idea as we did into summer.”

Peacock Players changed their model for summer camp this year, deciding to do one-week camps as opposed to doing their normal two-week camp model. Weirich said obviously, they’ve been altered but the goal remains the same in offering singing, dancing and acting instruction to kids.

“We’re going to keep them outside,” he said. “We’re going to keep them engaged through field games and crafts and all the stuff that makes summer camp, summer camp. But we’re putting a little more focus on getting outside.”

Weirich called partnering with Alpine Grove “a really great marriage,” saying that it was a happy accident after being at Nashua Community College for several years.

“They’re obviously a very different facility,” he said. “So, they’re dealing with COVID which is best for them. So, while we were looking for alternative venues, because we knew that we really wanted to reopen, we were getting a lot of requests for it. And Alpine, being a wedding facility and a banquet facility, their business kind of got decimated like the performing arts business.”

Alpine Grove attempted to redefine their parameters last summer, offering live music and comedy events outside under a large tent.

“But still people couldn’t gather and I think that was a struggle for them,” he said. “Plus, they have the double-whammy in that they’re like a restaurant. Restaurant had similar issues. But they’re a nice local mom-and-pop shop. The owners, the Archambeaults, are really great people.”

The beautiful facility at Alpine Grove, inside and out, will allow PP to maneuver based on their activities and the weather.

“There’s plenty of room so we can move them indoors if we have to and still isolate them because the space is so large,” Weirich said. “We can coordinate them in smaller groups and I think they were just happy to have music in the place and kids laughing and singing and dancing.”