Director’s Note

“Camp is a disguise that fails. Camp is a lie which tells the truth.” – Philip Core, Camp: The Lie that Tells the Truth (1984)

This cabaret was originally titled The Summer Camp Cabaret. We changed the title to The Summer Campy Camp Cabaret. Because it’s not summer camp. It’s CAMP. And what’s campier than Campy Camp? Probably Campy Campy Camp. Camp doesn’t seem like a real word anymore. And it doesn’t have to be!

All this to say, what are we doing here? We’re doing camp. In the best way we know. Camp was created by queer people, persisted through the course of time by the careful safeguarding of Black trans women and other queer and trans people of color, and now dispersed through media by celebrities and MET Galas and the fracking queen herself, RuPaul. In its origin and essence, camp is for survival on the margins. Queerness survives by looking at the “norms” and “naturals” and saying “no thanks.” Loudly and with a pink feather boa. Camp is protection from the loss of inclusion in the dominant culture. Let the sirens of society sing, camp is your ear plugs; no need to crash into those shores. If someone else gets to decide what is normal and destroy you for not being that, why not make up an alternative you can survive and thrive in?

So here we are. Thriving. Taking our love for musical theater, dressing it in glitter and glam, and step-pivot-turning it into something completely artificial and ephemeral. Because how else are we supposed to survive?

—

Steven Gross

Director, The Summer Campy Camp Cabaret