Girls Camp......Love it & Hate It.

I did Girls camp for over 10 years. I love it but I hate it.....so, when I was asked to help with the ward Girls Camp skit.....I said yes! It had been awhile since I had done the Girls Camp thing....my mind said "Oh, you love Girls Camp. Do It!"
Anyway, I don't know all the details, but here is the assignment. Each ward in our Stake was assigned a Dr. Seuss book as their source material for a skit, probably for their whole camp theme.

So, now for my "I hate it" part.......

Our ward was given Happy Birthday To You! Have you ever heard of It? This is not a Seuss book I am familiar with. It was published in 1959,..... it's one of his middle titles. This book didn't contain catchy fun rhymes or great Seussy characters to have fun with. I now know why I wasn't familiar with it....it's not good.

When I think Dr. Seuss, I think of the classics, all the great stories they included in the musical, Seussical, the Musical. In fact I thought to my self, "why couldn't they have given us Green Eggs and Ham?" If that had been the case, I might of copped out and had the girls do the Green Eggs and Ham, military march from Seussical, or I would have borrowed the Green Eggs and Ham rap some kids did at the high school, and if not GE&H, well, there are several other Seuss titles that I have either performed in for Children's Theatre, or that I have already cut down into 'play/script' form....but NO, I am assigned Happy Birthday To You!....I hate, hate, hate, hate this....(I am always telling the kids that Hate is too strong a word, especially when what you really are feeling is dislike.....I dislike It!.........doesn't sound as good as hate.

I have spent hours, trying to distill this long, and not very fun book into 5 minutes of performable material....not a simple task. When doing any writing, play, or otherwise you need a strong, inviting beginning, an interesting middle, that climbs to an apex of action or emotion, and finally a great conclusion and ending....and ending that compels you to action.
When you have a book with few of the above mentioned elements, it is rough.......I thought I had figured all of it out. After several days and 3 drafts, that now included -parts, emotion suggestions, acting and staging notes, I was done. I was going to wash my hands of this project. I hate Girls Camp. It was somebody else turn to suffer with this stupid story..... and they would have too. You see, in my 10 yrs. of Girls Camp experience, I learned that if the girls didn't create it, with your direction of course, then they wouldn't do it....wouldn't matter how good and cute the thing was; if the girls didn't create it, they were not going to like it, and it was not gonna happen...... Yeah, I'm done, good riddance............I will deliver the script tomorrow!

.........Then the incessant rhyming of the Seuss' words haunted me. It was a fitful night.............

This morning I began again.......well, kind of. I simplified the script, I removed all the parts, notes, suggestions, etc... I turned the thing into song lyrics..... developed a strong funky rhythm of the words........no new ideas here, just an application of the old, placed onto something new..........I'm fabulous! Now the girls can make this their own. My only suggestions to them were: singing it to the tune of Happy Birthday To You, ....am I clever or what? Or, turn it into a 'rap' with a clap, slap and stomp routine...... yes, I'm Fabulous!
now, I love, love, love, love it and yes, I mean love it!

Ahhhh, Girls Camp is so fun. I guess I could do the Girls Camp again...........

help, please somebody stop me before I commit....or am committed.
MCC

I am so glad that I didn't try to rhyme this blog.