Boston Lyric Opera's summer camp is teaching kids how to write their own opera.

Over the course of a week, kids ages 8 through 11 years old create their own story, characters and song, then perform.

"Sometimes people associate opera with being really like [a] stuffy thing. That can be a perception. So being able to share opera with kids and show them that it doesn't have to be that? It can be fun," BLO teaching artist Laura Nevitt said.

She works closely with the eight campers to help them create their own production.

"We spend a lot of time playing different games, getting them used to singing by themselves and being confident," she said. "The first day they were really shy. That did not last very long."

Boston Lyric Opera summer camp

Julia Propp, the senior director of external affairs at Boston Lyric Opera added, "One of the great things about opera is it can be many things to many different people. And one of the things I think about this camp and this activity is it really demystifies the idea of opera."

One of this year's campers at the Powers Music School in Belmont, 10-year-old Avery Wisz is having a blast.

"We get to sing, which I like a lot. We get to like create the plot and the storyline, which is really fun," Wisz said.

At the beginning of the week, each child takes inspiration from a picture book, and makes up their own characters and dialogue.That dialogue is then transformed into songs.

"When you think about it, what kid doesn't love to make up stories and what kid doesn't love to make up their own songs?" Gavin Farrell, the executive director at the Powers Music School, said. "So really, their lives are an opera already, they just don't realize it."

What is it like to perform opera?

Nevitt said it's not necessary for the kids to sing operatically to do opera.

"We mostly just focus on them making a healthy sound for their age and just adopt more of the emotions of the opera as opposed to like the full big body sound," Nevitt said.

Wisz described opera as "It's more like pop music. It's not really like the big dramatic opera stuff."

"You get to express yourself in a judgment-free place where your teachers are going to critique you and give you advice, but it's really all about your own journey and what you want to get out of something," Farrell added.

Propp sees the camp as helping participants build confidence.

"Kids go through the story writing, the rehearsing, the staging, to finally the performing, they look back and they say, gosh, well, I've done an opera. I can do anything," Propp said.