Welcome to the ASCTC 2024 Final Performance Festival! This year marks the 27th summer of the ASC Theatre Camp, and the first under the tenure of ASC’s newest Executive Director, Vanessa Morosco. Vanessa’s passion for Education is evident in her commitment to the third word of this company’s name: we are, indeed, the American Shakespeare Center, not the American Shakespeare Playhouse. We don’t only produce great plays, we also help to produce the next generation of great playmakers. Today, thirty-one of those promising young thespians will strut their stuff on the boards of our unique Playhouse; tomorrow, maybe they’ll be writing and performing their own new works; 27 years from now, maybe one of them will be the American Shakespeare Center’s new Executive Director. We should be so lucky!

These campers have accomplished an amazing amount in their time together. Not only have they created the performances you’ll see today, they’ve also: gotten voice training from ASC Resident Company member and Music Director Summer England, gotten acting training from ASC Resident Company member KP Powell (playing Macbeth this season), learned clowning from Director of Education Aubrey Whitlock, learned theatre history from MBU Shakespeare & Performance Professor Dr. Peter Kirwan, and examined the minute details of performing Shakespeare’s language with ASC co-founder Dr. Ralph Alan Cohen. They also studied the basics of verse, rhetoric, audience contact, improv, puppetry, and yoga. They rehearsed and performed an entire Showcase of scenes from throughout the early modern canon, walked up and down more stairs than they ever thought possible, and made memories that will last a lifetime. 

They didn’t do it alone. Throughout the long days of classes and rehearsals, they had the support of our amazing residential staff. Led by Team Captains Joan Raube-Wilson and Jake Raiter, the team of Resident & Directing Assistants (RDAs) Austen Bell, Scarlet Frishman, Marielle Buxbaum, and Sam Grocock not only helped them build their shows but kept them hydrated, healthy, and happy at our home on MBU’s campus. Production Interns Andrew Poma, Naomi Stephenson, Isabella Pizzitola, and Amy Hartt served as stage managers, dramaturgs, role models, and all-around-wranglers of props and costumes. Camp would not be possible without them, and today’s triumph is theirs as well.

They also had stalwart support from their show directors, Mili Koncelik (Troilus & Cressida) and Natasia Reinhardt (Comedy of Errors, also ASC’s Resident Intimacy Choreographer). They navigated their casts through the seas of two very different (but perhaps equally chaotic) plays with grace, good humor, and camp’s trademark collaborative kindness. They each crafed safe and supported opportunities for every camper to test the waters outside their comfort zones without fear of sinking. 

Most of all, though, they supported each other. While camp is always a joy, each group of campers is different. In my nine years running camp, I have seen some interesting group dynamics develop over the course of a session. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a group bond as quickly, as intensely, and as thoroughly as this summer’s campers. They seemed to take our shirt quote to heart immediately, and decided early on they would always go hand in hand, never one before another. They advocated for each other’s needs, supported each other’s artistic curiosities, and cheered for each other’s talent show acts so loudly I can still barely hear. Today, you get to see the fruits not only of our intense three-weeks’ labor, but also our three-weeks’ love. There’s more than enough to fill this Playhouse. 

Finally, let me say “thank you” to you: the friends, family, and general supporters of our campers. Thank you for all you did to make today possible. I hope you enjoy the show!

 – Lia Wallace
Education Programs Manager & Camp Director