Acting class benefits kids off the stage

The first time Camille Hayward had a speaking part in a play, she had the luxury to forget her lines. The play was “The Jungle Book” at Harbor View Elementary School, and Camille played a snake ? or, at least, a few feet of one.

“There were, like, five people playing one snake,” said Camille, 8, who recited her lines in unison with the other students in the costume.

This summer, though, Camille is taking acting to the next level. On Wednesday at Cliff Drive Park, she was one of six girls practicing monologues in Rhonda Felton’s Young Thespians Acting Workshop. During the 10-week summer class, the students learn about performing live and cap it off with a full-blown production on the last day.

First, though, they must master the art that terrifies most aspiring actors: being in the spotlight. At the start of the class, Felton let her students choose monologues from a book. On Wednesday, the girls presented them while their classmates scribbled down comments.

Call it preparation for being on “Ebert & Roeper.”

“Facing the audience for the first time is really nerve-wracking, but once you start to really do the play, the fear goes away,” said Kabele Cook, 8, who attends Pegasus School in Huntington Beach.

Most of the girls in the class ? no boys signed up this year ? had acted in plays at church or school before, although only a few had played large roles. Alexis Stary, 9, has a recurring character in plays at The Crossing Church in Costa Mesa, which depict aspects of Christianity. In her first play, she didn’t speak a word; in the second, her character’s first line was the word “Oh.”

On Wednesday, she started off the class with a spirited monologue, portraying the captain of a girls’ softball team who tries to goad her teammates into defeating, coincidentally enough, the boys. Sample lines: “Not you, Lauren. Your nails are wet. You’ll have to sit out this inning.”

Camille recited a speech from “Alice in Wonderland,” delivered by Alice as she slides down the rabbit hole. Afterward, Felton suggested blowing an electric fan in her face onstage to give the impression of falling.

The Newport Navigator guide lists the workshop as a “class for budding Oscar-winners.” However, to Felton, a North Carolina native who leads classes and programs around Orange County, it works just as well as public-speaking training.

“This class is definitely more mellow than super hard-core professional,” she said. “We’re not pushing them to take auditions every week.”dpt.04-onbreak-CPhotoInfoB11SJKHQ20060704j1up7fncDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Left to right, back row: Young Thesbians Kabele Cook, Camille Hayward and Maddie Ursini; and left to right, bottom row: MacKenzie Gaddis, Alexi Stary and Ellen Labbe take a bow following individual performances.