It is required you do awake your faith.

Session 1 returns! Since the Covid-19 pandemic halted operations in 2020, we’ve been slowly building back to “normal” — whatever that means. For Camp, it’s meant a chance to engage in some bold new Shakesperiments. Last summer, we debuted the Campers’ Renaissance Session. This summer, we added the Campers’ Repertory Session to the mix.

What is repertory? In short, it’s what you’ll see today: one cast of actors producing and performing more than one show at the same time. ASC audiences are used to seeing our professional company pull off such a feat, but we’ve never attempted it at Camp — until now. Today, you will see the 15 intrepid campers of ASCTC 2022 Session 1 perform both Mucedorus (by Anonymous) and The Winter’s Tale (by William Shakespeare). 

Three weeks ago, these campers were complete strangers both to each other and to this sort of work. Most had never attended Camp before; none had never participated in such an intense repertory process. All of us came in changed by our individual experiences of the last few years, determined to connect yet wary of having another unprecedented rug pulled out from under our feet. The days were long, the work hard, and the bar high — and the campers, as always, rose to the challenge.

Of course, they had some help. Directors Dave Quay (Mucedorus) and KP Powell (The Winter’s Tale) steered campers through these very different plays in very different ways, each building on the work of the other to give campers the full benefit of working with multiple directors. Resident & Directing Assistants (RDAs) Daniel Skinner, Devlin Ford, Kailey Potter, and Keith Hale created a repertory of their own, performing the parts of both dorm life resident advisors and rehearsal room production leaders. They kept campers laughing, hydrated, and supported. Production Interns Mia Randers-Pehrson, Mary Rose Valentine, Lydia Babcock, Margot Waldman, Percival Walter, and Topher Zane also pulled double duty fulfilling their various production roles while also serving as role models for campers thinking ahead to their post-Camp days. 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. As Paulina reminds us at the end of The Winter’s Tale, it is required we do awake our faith in order for wonderful things to happen. Coming together to put on a show has always been a leap of faith, and because you took that leap with us, we have made something wonderful. We hope you enjoy.

Lia Wallace
Performance Studies Manager & Camp Director