What’s Past is Prologue.

In its most classic form, the ASC Theatre Camp is an intense experience for young performers. Producing an early modern play in the world’s only recreation of the Blackfriars Playhouse is a bucket-list item for many professional theatremakers; doing so before you graduate high school is downright impressive, full stop. But the performers you will see today did not attend the most classic form of the ASC Theatre Camp. They attended the 2022 Campers’ Renaissance Session, designed both as a general (and natural) extension of the actor-driven work we do at the American Shakespeare Center, and a very specific response to the unprecedented scenario thrust upon all of us by the Covid-19 pandemic. The performers you will see today have spent the last four weeks working together on their collaboratively-directed production of The Tempest without the input or oversight of a formal director. A brave new world, indeed.

Did you know that although The Tempest was printed only once during the Early Modern period (as the opening play of the 1623 Folio) there is still no single, agreed-upon “official” text of the play, and every edition makes its own choices about, say, whether that word should be “human” or “humane”? These campers know — and they chose every word you will hear them say on this stage today.

Did you know that Shakespeare doesn’t provide explicit costuming directions for his characters, or a list of props needed for any given scene, or dance choreography for the elaborate wedding masque that pops up in Act 4? These campers know — and they made all those choices themselves (and don’t they look fantastic doing it?).

Did you know that nobody gets to decide what a Shakespeare play “means” forever or for all time, but that every performance of The Tempest is simply the result of a bunch of cascading choices that can yield whatever story it is the cast wants to tell today? These campers know — and they chose to tell the story they will tell today. 

Of course, they had some help. Production Interns Mia Randers-Pehrson and Mary Rose Valentine pulled double duty as dramaturg and stage manager (respectively) while also serving as role models for campers thinking ahead to their post-Camp days. Resident & Directing Assistants (RDAs) Daniel Skinner and Devlin Ford were only supposed to keep campers supported and hydrated, but when the tempests of the session conspired to shake up our cast list, they stepped in to save the day (and yes, that is why you will see them in our play). Overseeing it all were Associate Director of Education Programming Aubrey Whitlock and Programming Coordinator Anthony Pearson, without whom Camp would not function. I am endlessly grateful for this magnificent staff, and their marvelous work this Session.

Finally, I want to thank all of you: the families, friends, and supporters of our campers. It’s been a wild ride, and I’m so grateful to have been on it with this Camp Company. What’s Past may be Prologue, but what’s to come is 100% in their discharge.

—Lia Wallace

Performance Studies Manager & Camp Director