Jamie's Summer Adventures, Part 1

This summer, I spent 7 1/2 weeks working for a Jewish youth camp. I was directing/choreographing a couple of shows for them; and I was also directing/coordinating the technical aspects of the productions. Suffice it to say that it was a stressful, busy, and very rewarding experience. Apparently, all the years of LDS Girl's Camp has prepared me for the mountain experience.

Ha, ha, ha--that makes it sound like I was roughing it. To be honest, it was really rather nice. If you have seen the original Parent Trap, you may recall that the sisters meet at a sleep away camp. This is like that. We had cabins, a dining hall, computers, and a huge staff to work with the many kids. Also, the campers had the option to play on sports teams, attend science classes, create a movie, build rockets, paint pictures, throw clay, make jewelry, go to the lake, or participate in other activites. Obviously, since I was there, they could also be in a play. Our theatre was a converted Barn, and was aptly named, The Barn Theatre.

The first play was The Wiz. This is a funky version of The Wizard of Oz. It was a blast. My tech kids were awesome, and I felt comfortable putting many of them in leadership positions. My cast was talented and super cute. I had a group of fabulous dancers, and my Toto was a talented dancer AND gymnast. We also ordered a smoke machine and used the huge TV (the TV lived in the Barn) for visual effects. It was so fun! I learned a lot with this show, and I feel sorry that the campers had to be my guinea pigs. However, we all survived unscathed (mostly), and I closed that show feeling good about what we accomlished. I also enjoyed my own cleverness as we wrote lines in for certain characters--ha! I'm so funny. Writing may be one of my hidden talents.

The second show was Footloose. Now, Kevin Bacon's career took a huge shift when he took on the movie version of this story; and so many of the songs and dance moves are looked to as the quintessential examples of 80's Pop Culture. So tackling this show was very intimidating to me...especially when I realized I would be playing most of the accompaniment on the piano for every show. Gratefully, the guitar teacher put together a band that played 5 numbers during the show. They were so fun to work with. We had a velcro curtain that exposed the rest of the stage partway through the opener, and our Costume Crew Chief agreed to dress up like a boy and play Cowboy Bob. The cast was FABULOUS! I just adore these kids. They are on the verge of young adulthood. There were show-mances and break-ups. I think these youth have more opinions, theories, and ideals about love than I do. Good times!

The show was great, of course, and the response was very positive. We incorporated a lot of "firsts" in this show (a live band, a kiss, not taking out the Christian church element, etc). It was most refreshing!

Well, I guess that's all for now. Later I will post other things that I did this year. Have a beautiful Sunday!