WEYBRIDGE — “Loose and lovely.”

This was how an audience member summed up the outdoor production of “The Haunted Forest,” an original play written and performed by close to 30 Middlebury Area Land Trust (MALT) summer program campers on the Trail Around Middlebury this past Friday.

Any hiker hoping to enjoy a leisurely afternoon stroll in the Weybridge woods on Friday, July 18, would have been in for quite a shock when they stumbled upon colorful monsters, werewolves, creepy vampire-beings and unicorn princesses roaming around the TAM off Morgan Horse Farm Road with the usual forest critters. These magical creatures, costumed kids ages 8-12, took center stage at the base of the Otter Creek Gorge Northern Trailhead as part of a long-time-coming collaboration between MALT and Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater (THT).

It was an effort to help children explore themes of nature and conservation through the lens of performative art.

“I think that art and nature really can go hand in hand,” said Rachel Klatzker, MALT education manager. “It just seemed like a very natural, easy partnership.”

Every summer, MALT runs 10 sessions of week-long outdoor summer programming, offering a variety of themes ranging from treasure hunting to hiking to forest spirits. Klatzker said MALT tries to add one to two new themes every summer in an attempt to “reach all types of kiddos.” This year, they decided to explore how theater could showcase the beautiful Vermont landscape, while also helping kids learn how to connect with and respect their natural surroundings.

Keziah Wilde, THT assistant director of the Center for Learning and Engagement, explained the process of putting the show together last week.

“We started with the idea that the stories we would make would be pre-existing stories, like fairy tales that the kids knew,” Wilde said. “On day one, we were pretty immediately like, ‘The kids’ ideas are just so much more original and personal and creative than these fairy tales that everybody knows.’ So, we pivoted on day one and had them start devising their own creations out here in the woods.”

Klatzker agreed.

“We really just let them lead the way and there was absolutely no pressure, nobody was nervous,” she said.

This lack of nerves is due to the tremendous effort that it took both THT and MALT to prepare the children, some of them first time actors, with only a week to do so.

Spending a good chunk of time on Tuesday and Wednesday at the THT theater in town, staff members gave the children different acting and improvising exercises to practice, worked on character building and development and helping them devise their stories. The goal in mind was to equip the campers with the skills they needed to be able to perform in an adaptable and flexible way on their natural stage.

“We did a lot of acting training that would allow them to have the capacity to improvise and to be able to be adaptable, especially when using a space like the woods where things are constantly changing,” Wilde said.

Klatzker added, “I think we did a really good job of dividing the week up between outdoor education and theater-type techniques and skills…It’s really just a very harmonious divide between theater and outdoor education.”

With a large focus on adaptability, both on stage and in nature, the unique structure of the performance helped support this mission.

Gathered at the head of the trail, the large group of supporters, made up of parents, guardians, caretakers, siblings and other relatives, was split into two separate groups. Each group was guided along the wooded path, starting five minutes apart from each other, by a set of counselors who narrated, prompted and interacted with the actors they met along the way. This allowed for the campers to be able to put on two different performances.

“With an audience structure like this, the shows are going to be different every time they run them,” Wilde said. “So, we were trying to get them to a point where they could act in a way that was flexible and that they could adapt to the environment and think about using the woods to the best of its ability.”

Both Klatzker and Wilde were very proud of the creativity that the kids brought to camp this past week, and were extremely happy that the campers played such an active role in the production of their play.

“This week was super awesome,” Klatzker said. “MALT Camp has this sort of magic that is created every summer. It’s definitely a culture.”