BB Camp adds performing arts program

By JEWISH REVIEW

article created on: 2010-08-15T00:00:00

B’nai B’rith Camp launched a performing-arts program and this summer welcomed award-winning John Monteverde as Camp’s creative arts director.

Now the artistic director for Portland-based Blue Monkey Theater, Monteverde previously co-founded Northwest Children’s Theater and served as its producing artistic director for 13 years. He helped to create NWCT’s theater internship program for youth and directed 55 shows.

“BB Camp has always had a great creative-arts program, but this year we sought out a professional to turn great into excellent, which is exactly what John has done for us,” said BB Camp Executive Director Michelle Koplan.

Monteverde, 44, immediately saw BB Camp’s need to enhance the performing-arts program to its already very robust schedule of activities. “I used to attend summer camps as a child and the camp musical was one of my favorite activities,” he said.

His plan this summer is to put on an hour-long version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” with participation by both campers and staff. “It has a fun, irreverent, pop-influenced score that makes it ideal of a summer-camp setting.”

“There is an amazing amount of hidden talent among the counselors,” he said. “We have a scenic artist, a costumer, two choreographers and a couple of stage technicians that were a wonderful surprise, and people in general have been very enthusiastic about the idea.”

“I especially think that in a Jewish summer camp, musical theater should have a very strong place. The Broadway musical would not exist without the talents of more than 100 years of Jewish-American artists,” including – but certainly not limited to – Irving Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Cy Coleman, Jerry Herman and Stephen Sondheim,” he said.

“A Jewish camp should celebrate that connection; the contributions of Jewish artists to this art form is at its very heart,” Monteverde said from Camp, where he’s spent the summer. The art form also lends itself to practicing collaborative work.

“Theater skills translate to life skills in many ways, from teamwork to creative problem solving and public speaking,” Monteverde said. “I have enjoyed my short tenure here so far very much.”