Mockumentary supremacy needs to be taken seriously. Theater camp proves that a small film about awkward people not knowing what they’re doing can be a wonderful time that can also make you cry at the end. That is why, with that in mind, I will be releasing a mockumentary of my life, right now.
Theater Camp is going to be a long review, not in word length, but in the time it is taking me to delete Theatre and change it to Theater every time. As mentioned above, I had a pretty good time with this, channelling Eighth Grade in its awkwardness and The Office in its ignorant absurdity.
Rebecca-Diane and Amos return to theater camp after their musical director Joan is out of action in a coma after suffering a seizure, brought on by a particularly flashy amateur production.
Her son Troy is tasked with taking over the camp in her absence, bringing his signature enTroypreneurship to the business, with new money saving ideas. Classic venture capitalists come in, offering to buy the land from Troy, who struggles to see a future of the camp without major outside investment. Cue the classic “We must save the camp” storyline.
Rebecca-Diane, Amos and the rest of the teachers are fighting for this not to happen and for things to stay how they are. They don’t want to lose what these kids have in the camp, a place to call home away from home. A place they can be themselves fully and express their creativity.
The story shows the journey of Rebecca-Diane and Amos writing and staging their original musical “Joan Still”, a tribute to the owner of the camp, while she recovers in hospital.
We also follow the other teachers, Glenn, Clive, Gigi and Janet as they prepare for the show. Glenn is the tech guy, making sets, rigging lights and solving problems. Clive is the dance teacher, they sit in a wicker chair with flowers surrounding the back of the chair, almost like a crown. Gigi is the talented and eccentric costume designer, and Janet lied on her CV. She learns as she goes what she’s going to teach, from wearing masks to stage fighting.
Rebecca-Diane is the spiritual head of music. When she is not doing vocal warmups with her campers, she’s giving them insights into their past lives.
Amos is head of drama, bringing the most out of his students who he is training to play emotionally thin roles of Joan and the surrounding people in her life.
My decorated yet limited experience in the theater brings back a lot of memories from this time, but seeing it from a different perspective. I famously played the titular role in the Lion King when I brought audiences to tears with my rendition of Can You Feel The Love Tonight. Or when I shattered ticket records for my guest starring appearance, reaching new emotional depths as the Humpty Dumpty detective.
These experiences seem so professional as a child, you feel as though you’re stepping out onto a Broadway stage to a sea of high paying audience waiting in anticipation to hear you recite that famous line or sing that famous high note.
Turns out, the teachers of these shows have a similar feeling, they put everything into these shows, taking it just as seriously as the kids. I think this sort of passion is actually really nice for everyone involved, they all share the same desire to make the show the best it can be.
This isn’t presented like a deep dive into the minds of these people, why they are who they are and where they come from. It's a silly and heartwarming comedy, and is presented like that. The jokes all worked really well for me in the stupid and subtle humour of not only the main dialogue but the reactions of those around those lines.
Because of its documentary format, there is quite a lot of observational comedy, just watching some ridiculous interaction or alone time with a character.
The camera style also follows an observational style, acting as an objective witness to the action. I think the lack of intrusion from the fake production team of this documentary helps to set you in this absurd world of theater camp, not having them judge the actions of any of the characters, just showing them as they are, in an environment they’re comfortable in.
I’m not saying that most of these people aren’t insane, because they are, but not in harmful ways, just a little bit self important with good intentions.
For a musical staging, there are few full renditions, only really showing the finale song on opening night, which I did cry at, of course.
Other musical additions are a cover of Post Malone, a Lil Nas X needle drop and then a reprise from Mr Malone later on in the soundtrack. You couldn’t ask for more.
Theatre Camp is one that excites me at the idea of watching again, to see reactions and details I missed the first time around. I am ready for more of these lower budget passion projects. At the moment, I’m not exactly interested in high production comedies, they always have an impersonal sheen to them which is hard to connect to. Comedy only really works for me when the characters are personable and fleshed out enough to be in the situations they’re in. They feel like places those absurd characters would be, instead of constructed situations for cheap laughs. Theater Camp delivers strong characters and strange interactions to bring the comedy, and not easy setups for quick laughs and quotable lines.
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