This is were all of my journalistic integrity goes out the window and is replaced by a father\\\'s pride.



My daughter is making her theater debut this week. It\\\'s a bit part with no lines of her own, but she has a lot of background stage time so that makes excited. She\\\'s a cheerleader in the Tacoma Little Theatre / Metro Parks summer theater program\\\'s staging of "Disney\\\'s High School Musical."



The show runs at 7 p.m. today at Jefferson Park and at  7 p.m. at Lincoln Park. The play then travels to  Titlow Park for shows at noon and 7 p.m. and a finale at 2 p.m. Sunday at Tacoma Little Theater.



Another group of grade school and high school thespians will be staging another production of the show later this month as well since the program was proving too successful to limit to just one group. The performances are free and open to the public.

The six-week camps are meant to not only fill a stretch of summer vacation with something outside the house by teaching children the art and craft of theater but it has proven to be a huge confidence builder for at least one second grader, who now finds herself chattering with children twice her age without fear or shyness. She was never a  shy gal to begin with, but she now pounds into rooms of children and announces her arrival rather than just walking in and taking her place in the lineup. She has become Norm from "Cheers."



And there are a lot of patrons at the bar this summer.



"It is sort of a knock out of the park in terms of attendance," director Casi Wilkerson said.



Each program has more than 30 children. Metro Park folks sought to celebrate the parks system\\\'s 100th birthday and dedicated more resources to the program this year and opted to stage a boomer of a show to draw in children of that set. Anyone without children might not know this, but "High School Musical" is huge in the tweenie and teenage world. Staging it now is certain to draw crowds.



But other summer theater youth programs are experiencing success as well.

Lakewood Playhouse\\\'s programs, which are staging "Pinocchio" an improv show and "Broadway Review - Musical" later this month is no exception.



"Every year, we just get bigger and bigger," Education Director Maggie Knott said.

She, and other theater directors involved in summer youth programs, thinks it boils down to two big reasons: fuel prices are keeping a lot of family travel plans closer to home so parents want their children to experience something memorable before school starts; and school cuts are slashing theater and arts programs so summer camps and after-school programs are largely the only options left for parents looking to create well-rounded children.



With 104 registered campers ranging in age from 6 to 18, Tacoma Musical Playhouse\\\'s summer camp has increased in size nearly 50 percent since last year, and nearly doubled in size since 2005.



"This year, we reached capacity in nearly every program," said TMP Education Director Patrick Schroeder.



The theater is staging "Once Upon a Mattress" and "The AristoCats" as well as its own version of "High School Musical" later this month.



"Youth theater at Camp TMP is going strong and growing quickly," he said.