Best. Lesbian. Week. Ever. (June 18, 2010)

THIS JUST IN: THE CREATOR OF CAMP WANATACHI WANTS YOUR LESBIAN CAMP STORIES
Over the past few months, a considerable buzz has surrounded the musical Camp Wanatachi, a quirky story about an all-girls Christian summer camp in which two of the campers fall in love.

When it debuted at New York’s Fringe Festival last year, Time Out New York called it “refreshing and uplifting and gave it four stars. New York Magazine dubbed it a hilariously subversive piece of theater." Even we had something to say about it.

Produced by Bridget Regan of Legend of the Seeker and Ian Pai, co-founder of Blue Man Group and musical director of Fischerspooner, the zany musical is set to forward-sounding electro tracks with whimsical yet hormone-driven lyrics that evoke the frenetic and confusing but often exhilarating time called adolescence. It features beats by hip-hop producer Machinedrum and was arranged by up and coming composer Conrad Winslow.

Two weekends ago Camp Wanatachi enjoyed a sold out two-night run at the 3LD Art & Technology Center in Lower Manhattan. We caught up with creator Natalie Weiss, who discussed the love story’s autobiographical origins, her offbeat take on God and Christianity, and the future of Camp Wanatachi and its related art installation, in which she would like AfterEllen.com readers — yes you! — to participate.

Creator of Camp Wanatachi, Natalie Weiss

AfterEllen.com: The main story arc is the love story between two female campers at Christian summer camp. Was the plot inspired by personal experiences?
Natalie Weiss: Yes, the story is roughly autobiographical. Camp Wanatachi follows the relationship of 13 year old Jana, earnest and religious, and 13 year old Titi, promiscuous and enchanting. Jana is essentially me at 13, but with a better collection of Christian ska records. I, like Jana, fell in love with the sluttiest girl at camp, set out to convert her and eventually fingered her in my bunk bed. After which she totally ignored me. This encounter made such an impression on me that I have spent the last three years exploring the experience and the context in which it occurred.

AE: If you don’t mind my asking, do you identify as queer?
NW: Yes. I am romantically attracted to both women and men.

AE: Are you Christian?
NW: Yes, absolutely. But I’m not a “normal” Christian. I am not interested in judgment. I am a sex positive queer theist who wants to actually become Jesus through a slow process of freeing myself from cartoon ideas of God and learning to love perfectly through art.

AE: The version shown on June 3 and 4 was the abbreviated version of the musical. Why was only the abbreviated version shown?
NW: We decided to do an abbreviated version — we called it a "Concert Version" — of Camp Wanatachi due to financial restraints. It is very expensive to mount a full-length musical. When you are doing a concert version, no one expects set pieces, props or costume changes — when doing a full production things like that become necessary.

We hope that when people see the concert version they get the idea, imagine its potential, and invest in Camp Wanatachi! We are in the midst of a fund-raising campaign though kickstarter.com that lasts until June 30. It feels funny to be so direct, but seriously, if you want to see a lesbian relationship at the center of a big Broadway musical for the first time ever, donate any amount and be part of history.

AE: Yes, that would be awesome! So what is the next step for Camp Wanatachi — like perhaps an Off-Broadway run showing the full version of the musical if you raise the funds?
NW: Actually the next step for Camp Wanatachi is a multimedia gallery show and discussion corridor entitled ”Jesus in Our Lives” at Ramiken Crucible Gallery in New York City’s Lower East Side this August.

As for our next big musical production, we have received offers to perform the full version of Camp Wanatachi Off-Broadway next year! Hooray! I am still praying that the funds will come in that will allow us to accept one of those offers. Of course our goal is to take Camp Wanatachi to Broadway and it’s looking like that is a real possibility! This s--t is getting mad hyped.

AE: On the donation site, "Jesus in our lives" is described as such: "Jesus In Our Lives’ utilizes photographic, video, performance and interactive components that give a voice to young lesbians and promote frank discussion about the intersection of homosexuality and Christianity.” Can you elaborate on the details?
NW: The gallery show, “Jesus in Our Lives,” serves three purposes. First, it allows me to creatively explore experiences related to Camp Wanatachi that we don’t have time to explore within the format of a Broadway style musical.

Secondly, we are thrilled by the photographs, songs, and video art that our musical has inspired. Conceptual artist Frank Traynor took photographs of our Camp Wanatachi cast through crystal prisms. Those photos are too good to exist solely as publicity shots for us. The audio recordings of Camp Wanatachi songs are incredible. Crafted by my musical hero Travis Stewart (Machinedrum) and featuring performances by musicians like Ben Bromley of New Villager and Ian Pai of Fischerspooner, I want them to be experienced as independent pieces of sound sculpture without the distraction of dancing and lighting changes. Further, the projections we used in our last production, created by visual and performance artist Tom Sawyer, were so beautiful they made me homesick for camp. I want someone to be able to experience those projections alone in an art gallery at two in the afternoon, not just in the context of a banging-ass musical.

Lastly — and most importantly — our proclamation with Camp Wanatachi is that there is "No Fear in Love. That is even the name of the last song in Camp Wanatachi. The Bible states clearly in 1 John 4 that "There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear" and that "whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."

So yeah, to answer your question, Ramiken Crucible will be a safe space for everyone to explore the space in which Christianity and homosexuality intersect. If we get haters up in there, they will be removed by a large dyke named Shirley. But this is f-----g New York, and everyone is going to be very nice and supportive.

AE: Can you tell me more about why such a safe space is needed? What kind of fears are you trying to diffuse, if that makes any sense.
NW: There is another kind of fear that a lot of people don’t know about, another fear I am trying to remove with this gallery show. It is the fear of telling people you are Christian. Surely you’re familiar with a few of the reasons someone might not want to be called Christian — the scalping of thousands of Native Americans, the bombing of abortion clinics and the ridiculous appointments of ill-equipped presidents come most immediately to mind. Yet it is a path I cling to, albeit in a nontraditional way, and is a huge part of how I have branded myself as an artist. It is part of my life art.

I often jokingly say that I am out twice over, I’m an out queer and an out Christian. Now, I’m not trying to front like I’m the only young Christian doing cool experimental work. No way. You might not know, but Williamsburg is crawling with talented young hipster Christians who do weird art. But like, their message is so cloaked in reverb and delay pedals that I couldn’t very well call them out Christians. Hell, they don’t even talk about God in public. I mean, they might casually mention that they go to the same church as Sufjan Stevens, but they are not like, at a bar with friends, looking up at the sky and proclaiming to everyone, “Man I am so excited about Jesus’ return! This sunset is so beautiful! I’d love to see Jesus split that sky open on a sweet white horse!” No way.

The cool way to do Christianity is to kinda not mention it and then hopefully someone will come along and be like, “You have a joy — a peace. What is it? Could it be that you are in contact with the great unknown?” Whatever! That is too subtle for me. I’m a musical theater girl. It’s all gotta be over the top!

AE: You told me that you’d like AfterEllen.com readers to participate in this gallery show. How can they be a part of it?
NW: Many, many women had lesbian experiences at summer camp. Right now I have an open call out to women who would like to share their Sapphic summer camp tales. Afterellen.com-ers: did you have any lesbian experiences at a summer camp? Whether your experience was physical or emotional or as a counselor or camper, I am very interested. I am collecting written submissions, as well as audio and video recordings of your stories to include in our gallery show “Jesus In Our Lives” this August. Your story can be credited to you or left anonymous.

If you live in the New York City area we can come to you and create an audio or video recording. If you like, you can send us a video of yourself telling your story and then request that we only use the audio of your story, not the video, so that you can remain more anonymous. Submissions or links to your submissions should be sent to campwanatachi@gmail.com.

So, AfterEllen readers, it's time to dig up your randy lesbionic encounters from camp. These stories don’t have to be from Christian summer camp. They can originate from any type of camp — day camp, sleep away camp, music camp, religious camp, non-religious camp, and of course, tennis camp. Also, spread the word about the musical and related art installation, and hopefully next year we’ll be treated to the full version of Camp Wanatachi in an Off-Broadway run. And then, possibly, onto Broadway!

Thanks to Sabrina Haley for the tip.

— by Grace Chu