It’s almost here! Tomorrow 32 young artists are going to arrive here at the American Shakespeare Center ready to learn, grow, perform, and so much more. In other words, there is going to be some exciting work happening here in the next three weeks.

A year ago, I knew nothing about this camp. I was working at the ASC in a different capacity and figured it would be nice to show some support for team education. I decided to attend the student’s final shows…and I was FLOORED by the work I saw. These students were dynamic and professional. They were doing things I never would have fathomed.

I’m a process-oriented thinker, not a product-oriented one. So my first thought after seeing this performance was “That was amazing, and I have to know…how did they do that? How did they get there? What was that process like?” While public performances are a great way to show the culmination of the work that happens here, there are so many other wonderful moments we don’t get to show off. Discovery’s in rehearsals, generous moments of collaboration, great discussions about some cool early modern plays! These moments are the foundation that informs the work we see at the end. It’s not the just the destination that matters, it’s the journey.

Now, you might be thinking “Hey wait a minute, I would love to get a sense of what all those little moments are that make up the camp experience. I want to see the journey not just the destination. Where can I find that?”. That’s what this blog is for. Over the course of the summer this blog will highlight, contextualize, and most importantly celebrate the everyday work that our students do here.

Interested in what happens during any given rehearsal? Our lovely production interns will be posting “Rehearsal Recaps” which provide insights into the day to day process of our shows. Interested in learning more about the plays our students will be working on? Our director’s notes will be invaluable reads. Interested in thoughts about everyday camp life and how it informs the work? Every resident & directing assistant will be posting on this blog, bringing their individual expertise and experience to the table for your reading pleasure.

What we’ll have in this blog is a multitude of perspectives, each of which will help to form a picture of what this camp’s process looks like. I value transparency and I hope through this blog we can help to create an informed understanding and appreciation of the work that we do here. If you’re interested in that, then keep checking back here for more content, there’s going to be some cool stuff and you won’t want to miss it.