Notes on Camp: Day One

Dutiful interns Sylvia & Connor

Something old, something new. Mornings, Kelly and I work in tandem with students aged twelve to eighteen. It’s been three years since we held in-person camp, and I was curious as to how many of these kids would have attended our camp before. And it was around half. I was shocked. I was so pleased. 

How many had aged out? How many had folks were weren’t ready to send their kids to an experience like this? But so many were back, and it is so good to see them again.

We are wearing masks. Yes, it’s a drag. But I wouldn’t do it otherwise, and I am grateful for the accommodation. They want to be here and so do we.

We worked together to create a list of expectations for the week, to which we could all agree. Some expectations involve playing certain games. Others involve providing mutual respect and attention. We got onto the same page.

Campers got to know each other a little, introduce each other, learn names. And then we got to work! And this year, guess what? We’re working on (among other things) the Short Play Project. I have a tranche of two-person plays, many of which are perfect for middle and high school aged kids to work on.

Exactly how we do that, I will make note of as the week progresses. Today, we had cold reads, tearing through a number of them, but not enough apparently, as they were eager to keep reading them aloud for each other.