Brick Theater and Glasswork Productions Present THE COLLECTED RULES OF GIFTED CAMP, Now thru 5/26

Since their origins in the early 1980's, academic summer programs for gifted teenagers have proliferated across the United States, and indeed around the world. Fueled by an increasingly competitive college admissions process, easy access to standardized qualifying tests, and parental anxiety over children's future career prospects, these programs capitalize as well on teens' longstanding desires to escape from adult supervision and suburban boredom. The Collected Rules of Gifted Camp explores the way these new trends collide with and transform the traditional American pastime of summer camp.

Annie, Leila, and Kevin, age 15, have been counting the days until they arrive at their summer destination, a highly selective academic program for gifted teens. Dodging flying peppermints, deformed Noxema jars, kidnappers, claw-knives, aggressive squirrels, the ever-present threat of swine flu, not to mention their counselor, Rose, the campers doggedly pursue their respective Camp Goals – until the unexpected happens, at the Saturday night costume dance.

Written by: Valerie Work
Direction: Annie Tippe
Costume Design: Eleot Reich
Featuring: Hollis Beck, Andrew R. Butler, Lena Hudson, & Ryann Weir

Valerie Work is a New York City based playwright. Her plays, which include A Week at the NJ Shore, A Meditation on The Misanthrope: 10 Years Later, My Book of Storms, The Fighting Frogs vs. Victoria Vanderbilt, A Wonderfully Flat Thing, "Rrrrr Argh Blech," and "Crossing the Cow Field," have been staged, read or fully produced at venues such as Classic Stage Company; Walkerspace; Dixon Place; the 14th Street Y; The Bushwick Starr; Brooklyn Arts Exchange; Under St. Marks; manhattantheatresource; Manhattan Repertory Theatre; the Boston Center for the Arts; Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis; the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater in Minneapolis; the Goggleworks in Reading, PA; The Pulse Performing Arts Studio in Bedford Hills, NY; Brooklyn College; Yale University; Georgetown University and Washington College.

Ms. Work was named a Semi-Finalist for the 2011 Bonderman Symposium and an excerpt of The Fighting Frogs vs. Victoria Vanderbilt was presented there in April 2011. Her work has been published in The Midway Journal, The Book of Estro, and The Brooklyn Review. She has completed residencies at the Espy Foundation in Washington State, the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She holds a B.A. from Yale and an MFA from Brooklyn College, where she studied with Mac Wellman. A veteran of multiple "gifted camps" as first camper and later instructor, she is now a test prep tutor. www.valeriework.com

Performances May 16, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26 at 8pm All tickets: $18
Only at The Brick, 575 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

All tickets available at www.bricktheater.com or by calling Theatermania (212-352-3101)

To post a comment, you must register and login.