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The Real Life Drama of a Summer at Stagedoor Manor, the Famous Performing Arts Camp
Free Press
June 2010
On Sale: June 1, 2010
240 pages
ISBN: 1439145768
EAN: 9781439145760
Kindle: B003L785NS
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
What do Natalie Portman, Robert Downey, Jr., Zach Braff, and
Mandy Moore have in common? Before they were stars, they
were campers at Stagedoor Manor, the premier summer theater
camp for children and teenagers. Founded in 1975, Stagedoor
continues to attract scores of young performers eager to
find kindred spirits, to sing out loud, to become working
actors—or maybe even stars. Every summer for the past thirty-five years, a new crop of
campers has come to the Catskills for an intense, often
wrenching introduction to professional theater. (The camp
produces thirteen full-scale productions during each of its
three sessions.) These kids come from varying
backgrounds—the offspring of Hollywood players from Nora
Ephron to Bruce Willis work alongside kids on scholarship.
Some campers have agents, others are seeking representation. When Mickey Rapkin, a senior editor at GQ and
self-proclaimed theater fanatic, learned about this place,
he fled Manhattan for an escape to upstate New York. At
Stagedoor, he tracked a trio of especially talented and
determined teen actors through their final session at camp.
Enter Rachael Singer, Brian Muller, and Harry Katzman, three
high school seniors closing out their sometimes sheltered
Stagedoor experiences and graduating into the real world of
industry competition and rejection. These veteran
campers—still battling childhood insecurities, but
simultaneously searching for that professional gig that will
catapult them to fame—pour their souls into what might be
their last amateur shows. Their riveting stories are told in Theater Geek, an
eye-opening, laugh-out-loud chronicle full of drama and
heart, but also about the business of training kids to be
professional thespians and, in some cases, child stars. (The
camp has long acted as a farm system for Broadway and
Hollywood, attracting visits from studio executives and
casting directors.) Via original interviews with former and
current campers and staff—including Mandy Moore, Zach Braff,
and Jon Cryer—Rapkin also recounts Stagedoor Manor’s
colorful, star-studded history: What was Natalie Portman’s
breakout role as a camper? What big-time Hollywood director,
then barely a teenager, dated a much older Stagedoor staff
member? Why did Courtney Love (at Stagedoor visiting her
daughter) get into an argument with a hot dog vendor who had
set up shop at the camp?
Theater Geek leads readers through the triumphs and
tragedies of the three senior campers’ final summer in an
absorbing, thought-provoking narrative that reveals the
dynamic and inspiring human beings who populate this world.
It also explores what the proliferation of theater camps
says about our celebrity-obsessed youth and our most basic
but vital need to fit in. Through the rivalry, heartbreak,
and joy of one summer at Stagedoor Manor, Rapkin offers
theater geeks of all ages a dishy, illuminating romp through
the lives of serious child actors. Rich, insightful, and
thoroughly entertaining, Theater Geek pulls back the curtain
on an elite and intriguing world to reveal what’s really at
its core: children who simply love to perform.
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