Sheen helps at Navajo drama camp

Martin Sheen coming to Shiprock drama camp

Hollywood actor will perform skits with students at local camp

By Jenny KaneHollywood actor Martin Sheen's next role is going to be alongside hundreds of Shiprock youths.

The famed star is coming to Shiprock to help out with a local community camp and series of workshops. Sheen will be working with both children and adults Sunday through Tuesday. He arrives Saturday.

Sheen will work with the camp's drama clinic, which will produce a 45-minute video starring both Sheen and the children.

"Anyone that would like to go, can go," said Kathleen Norton, field director for the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health.Sheen knows something about Native America:It is not often that such A-listers frequent the Shiprock area, unless they are wrapped up in filming. They rarely stick around to hang out with the locals.

Sheen, however, is friends with the parents of one of the volunteers leading the drama portion of the camp. He spoke at a Native Vision event initially and gained further interest in what Native Vision actually did for communities.

"We've really forgotten about our Native American population," Sheen said in a video for Native Vision. "Our citizens on the reservation have been neglected for so very long."Comment:  For more on Navajo movies, see Black Cat in Space and Navajo Star Wars Cast Chosen.