I am in my happy place, summer camp. It seems insane. Over the past several years, I’ve given up opportunities and a “normal”, “regular” life in the outside world in order to be able to be here for just eight weeks of each year. 

A day is a week. A week a year. A summer, a literal lifetime. 

This is my sixth summer, third in music/theatre (after three in guidance). It’s hard to describe what I love about this place. The artistic community. The constant collaboration. The way people spend their days, and nights, making art, creating theatre. The campus itself. The smell of the place. The green of the trees. Even the bugs. The staff are some of the most best people I’ve ever met. 

The campers are amazing. They’re my babies. I am so damn proud of them. I’ve watched a generation of campers grow from young precocious kids into thriving, creative, wonderful adults. 

This year’s campers arrived today. Walking through camp and seeing them playing, making art, and hanging out as if that’s what they’d always done makes me feel so joyful. Knowing that art is happening all around me is glorious. And not just the art. The learning and growing that I know is happening at this very moment. It's overwhelming. 

Being a part of the formative years of a bunch of people’s lives. Spending my summer’s helping to stage two full-scale musicals. Helping kids discover their potential and skills they didn’t even know they had. 

It is damn hard work. The hours are long. There’s not much of a financial incentive. But oh god, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. 

For the next three weeks, we’re working on Avenue Q. Check back here for weekly updates on the show diary!