DESERT FOOTHILLS – Three teachers must recommend them, and they must be able to answer questions about their current involvement and plans for a future in the theater. If successful, 17 students in grades 1‑9 will be awarded tuition vouchers toward what many in the local performing arts community consider the opportunity of a lifetime: attending the Desert Foothills Community Education Performing Arts Camp at Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center.

The program is under the direction of world‑class mime artist C. Nicholas Johnson and his creative team. The group brings a variety of experience to the stage, taking traditional theater instruction to its limits and providing students with highly sought‑after instruction.

Students will learn mime and theatrical movement, singing, costuming, and set creation. This year’s production will be “Silent Dialogues: Old and New.” The  performance is a collection of nine short vignettes: “Street Mime,” “Electric Nights,” “Bodies of  Music,” “Life Song,” “Shadow Love,” “Conformity,” “Gulliver,” “Angels Rising,” and “Evolution of Art.”

Tuition for the program, held at the Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center and running from June 5 through June 17, is $340. Foothills Community Foundation will provide vouchers each worth $170 to 17 students who live in the Foothills area and show an interest in the arts.

Three teacher recommendations are required as are answers to the following three questions: Which of the following areas are you most interested in participating: performer, set design, costuming, or the multi‑media part of the camp and why? In which of the arts are you currently involved and to what extent? What role do you expect the arts to play in your future? The deadline for submission of recommendations and essays is June 1.

As part of the total artistic experience, students involved in the program will receive a DVD of the performance, a scrapbook they have created, and complimentary tickets to the Saturday, June 17 performance.

Call (480) 575‑2070 for information. Application forms are available at the Desert Foothills Community education offices at the Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center, 33606 N. 60th Street, Cave Creek.