ZZ’s Sleep-away Camp for Disordered Dreamers
Adapted from “ZZ’s Sleep-Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers“ a short story by Karen Russell
Created by Olivia Gilliatt, Marina McClure, Emma Stanton, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Brian Bock, Joshua David Robinson, Emma Zakes Green, Nic Benacerraf, and Kate Fry
Additional Collaborators include Maybe Burke, Waseem Alzer, Kareem Lucas, Marisol Rosa-Shapiro, Anastasia Olowin, Stephen Stocking, and Sam Bolen
Inspired by Karen Russell’s short story of the same name, ZZ’s Sleep-Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers centers around three pre-teens during a transformative summer at their sleep-away camp. While camp for disordered dreamers is typically a place of refuge, adventure, and very little sleep (with late-night games of Moonball, adventures in the Edison Insomnia Balloon, and friendships forged through shared insomnia), everything changes for Emma, Oglivy, and Elijah when the camp’s beloved sheep is found dead. While at first the mystery surrounding the sheep is an exciting newfound adventure, the kids soon find themselves at the center of a murder mystery, having to face a more complicated adult world.
An ensemble-driven theater piece that allows for both an interactive and a witnessing relationship to the material, ZZ’s Sleep-Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers invites young audiences and adults to step into a world where the weird kids rule the night and “disorders” transform into super powers – a soothing balm for the adult world and a guiding light for transformation.
Photos from workshop at Barn Arts, Tremont, Maine. Fall, 2016. All photos by Marina McClure.
