"What You Will'

Thursday Night. July 29. After dinner, all of the campers scurried back to their rooms to prepare themselves for “What You Will”, on the Twelfth Night of camp. They gathered again in the King Theatre, all dressed up and ready to perform. While they all settled into their seats, the three MCs, one counselor and two campers, came out onstage dressed alike to begin the show. The night kicked off with a popular music medley; on the kazoo, no less. The campers cheered and clapped along to the popular songs that were played, like “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey and “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga.

With the MCs taking turns introducing the acts, the campers’ acts became filled with more creativity and originality as the night went on. A few campers put their own spin on some Shakespearean scenes, including selections from Much Ado About Nothing, 2 Henry IV, and the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. One pair even brought back a scene – in French no less! – that they had done together in a previous YCTC performance. Counselors got involved as well, doing scenes with campers from such plays as King John and The Tempest, and even performing monologues of their own.

Yet, Shakespearean text wasn’t the only spoken language on the “What You Will” stage. Two campers staged scenes from their own original plays, while scenes from modern plays were shown as well. In one, a girl was denied a license by a snobby DMV worker. While in another, the audience watched as a couple broke up. The theatre was filled with laugher as one of the characters suddenly broke the fourth wall and asked what the audience was doing there, in the middle of yelling at her boyfriend. Two girls played the same character side by side, one doing the monologue in English, while the other was speaking it in Spanish. The girls integrated the two languages beautifully, which in the end created a haunting piece of work from Blood Wedding by Frederico Garcia Lorca (1933).

A couple of campers went up onstage and read original poetry, while others recited poems from famous poets. The “What You Will” lineup was also scattered with musical numbers. One camper sung opera, while others performed songs from popular Broadway shows including Gypsy and Les Miserables. One camper changed the lyrics to a song from the musical Once Upon a Mattress to be about some of Shakespeare’s love stories. Another wrote a poem that was almost a rap, all about the plays and preshow that the camp has been working on this summer. There was a ukulele medley of Gaga songs, and one girl performed “Tik Tok” by Keisha turned into a ballad. Four of the boys created a band and dedicated their song to one of the female counselors.

The entire night was overflowing with talent from all of the campers. The constant laughter and continual flash of cameras made for an extremely exciting atmosphere. Once the performances were over, all the campers flooded the stage and congratulated each other on the fine work that they had done. They took lots of pictures with their friends before slowly making their way back up to their rooms, excited about their bed time being pushed back. After getting ready for bed, some of the girls gathered in the hallway, in pajamas, to talk, snack, and hang out before going to bed after a long but fun filled day.

Darielle Shandler