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"Camp Wanatachi" sets lesbian young love to music

Posted by
the linster
 on July 27, 2009

When you’re 13 and your main social activity is church, your most intense crushes are on kids in your Youth Group. Especially if you happen to be a baby dyke, not quite sure what to do about those tingles you get when your BFF sleeps over. Looking back on my own teen years, I realize that most of my intensely spiritual experiences had more to do with hormones than the Holy Ghost.

Now those feelings are coming to stage, thanks to Natalie Weiss, who leads the experimental performance project Unicornicopia.

Weiss’ new play, Camp Wanatachi, is a musical comedy about two 13-year-old girls who fall in love at a Christian summer camp. (Thanks to AfterEllen.com reader Tina for the tip!)

The musical is a feature of this year’s New York International Fringe Festival 2009, August 15 – August 29, and is produced by Ian Pai (Blue Man Group) and Bridget Regan (Legend of the Seeker).

Camp Wanatachi (great name, btw) is a different kind of church camp, to be sure. The music is hot and the counselors are cool. And everything I’ve seen so far is very, very funny. Here’s a video of highlights from the musical. The sound quality is not great, so you might have to watch it more than once to get it all. I don’t think you’ll mind.

If you happen to be in NYC this week, check out the Camp Wanatachi Dance Party benefit at Glasslands in Brooklyn, complete with s’mores, friendship bracelets and hair wraps. All the cast will be there to perform scenes and songs from the play.

You can keep up with other camp happenings on the Camp Wanatachi Facebook page. Does this story bring back horny happy memories of your youth? If you live near NYC, will you see Camp Wanatachi? If you do, be sure to let us know what you think.

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Forza Roma's picture

Haa awesome.

Posted by
Forza Roma (393 posts)
on July 27, 2009 at 06:12pm
My parents never let me go to church camp when my friends invited me (shielding me from awkward Baptist lectures on hell, I'm now aware), but one of my biggest "I'm in total denail of this" crushes was on a camp counselor. This sounds hysterical.
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Kimberley's picture

Bridget Regan

Posted by
Kimberley (15 posts)
on July 27, 2009 at 08:36pm
ummm you lost me at Bridget Regan.... I will watch whatever this is....
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turkish's picture

RE:

Posted by
turkish (154 posts)
on July 27, 2009 at 09:27pm
I didn't know anything about this until Bridget Regan, actress on Legend of the Seeker mentioned it on her Twitter. I don't think she's acting it just producing but mentioned she'll be there to support it even though she's still filming Legend in New Zealand right now. It certainly has an interesting premise.
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KineticStillness's picture

Wonder who she got involved

Posted by
KineticStillness (170 posts)
on July 27, 2009 at 10:29pm

Wonder who she got involved in this?  It seems like a play that would have a bunch of gay people producing it but I don't think she's gay, right? 

I love her even more now.  I was flipping around the stations one day and saw a vision...it was her and I've been watching Legend of the Seeker ever since! 

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MyMomCallsMeHerMaleDaughter's picture

I have gay memories from church camp

Posted by
MyMomCallsMeHer... (28 posts)
on July 27, 2009 at 09:10pm
This was me in highschool. I didn't define myself as a big church person, but I did grow up in the south so I did have those experiences of going with the youth-group to camp.  One summer working as an older camper as a volunteer on camp maintenance, I got hit on by a cute girl who told me she liked the rainbows that I drew on my shoes. That week she asked me to walk with her to see something (a side walk that her cabin had built), an exuse, since it was really a chance to hold hands while walking to go somewhere we'd both be alone. I had the butterflies and it was clear that she was waiting for me to make the move. Right then, while I was contemplating going in to kiss her (my first kiss with a girl), a friend of hers from my youth group came pacing towards us. It seemed like this friend could tell what we were thinking. It freaked me out.  Later that week I bought cough syrup to robo-trip and I totally got caught because it was obvious that I was on drugs and freaking out.  I got pulled aside by my favorite counselor, a guy who's now in seminary, and he sat with me and asked what was going on.  I wish this story ended differently, but I was so closeted then and had yet to kiss a girl.  I feel bad since I saw the girl crying because she thought it was her fault.  At the time I didn't explain to my counselor what I was feeling at the time, because I didn't even understand.  But, I have since talked to him about it when I made it to college and luckily some churches like my own are more open-minded than others. 
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DerangedBeanie's picture

Sweeeeeeet.

Posted by
DerangedBeanie (106 posts)
on July 27, 2009 at 09:30pm
I wish I could see that show. It looks hilarious. It reminds me of The Upside Down Poeidon Adventure that was done in Chicago. I love musical theatre.
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kidbucket's picture

aha rainbows and flowers

Posted by
kidbucket (33 posts)
on July 28, 2009 at 01:20am
i love that musical, i want to see it sometime!
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Sarah's picture

This doesn't look half bad!

Posted by
Sarah (286 posts)
on July 28, 2009 at 11:19am
"When you're thirteen and your main social activity is church...."  Hee hee, I was hooked from that point on!  :D 
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Eillac's picture

My first crush

Posted by
Eillac (60 posts)
on July 28, 2009 at 11:40am
My first crush was on my camp counselor, Jill. Five years olders than me, smoking hot, brilliant, funny... I cried when I finally went home. I still have a letter she wrote me and put in one of my books.
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Tati's picture

I remember church camp

Posted by
Tati (3 posts)
on July 28, 2009 at 06:54pm
ha ha this is awsome i met my girlfriend at church camp
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Radicalmind's picture

:)

Posted by
Radicalmind (281 posts)
on July 29, 2009 at 11:58am

This is awesome, I hope they'll have copies of the play on DVD

~The whole world will tell you who you are, until YOU tell the world! 

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