<p>SDM is for ages 10-18 and sometimes campers attend the summer after they graduate HS (I know some doing that this year and others who have done so in the past, though there are not that many HS graduates). My D went for just one session the summer after graduation but in her case, she was still 16. Some kids are 18. I am not sure in your case and you would have to ask. Normally a HS graduate, the summer following graduation could go. The fact that you’d be 19, not 18, is not in their official age range but perhaps if you explained that it would be the summer following HS (and others who just graduated do attend) but that you are simply old for your grade, they might allow it. It is best to ask directly. Please be aware that Stagedoor starts filling up in late fall and so if you are truly interested, you may need to commit this coming fall. </p>
<p>While CAMP was filmed at SDM, but with professional actors, not campers, and written and directed by an alum, it really doesn’t depict what SDM really is like. You may wish to rent the documentary called Stagedoor: The Movie as that was filmed during one camp session in 2003.</p>
<p>A few summers ago, in A Little Night Music, the girl playing the lead, was 19 I believe. That is not common, however.</p>
<p>The summer after you graduate HS is fair game, I believe. My roomate was 19. However, those who go after HS graduation are usually returning campers. I couldn’t go this summer (summer after my own HS graduation) nor last, but I knew plenty of people that did. They all loved it.</p>
<p>I agree that the kids who tend to attend the summer following HS graduation are often returning campers who want one more summer there. However, the girl who played the lead in A Little Night Music was a brand new camper that summer.</p>
<p>well that’s good to know and i do realize that CAMP didn’t have real campers, but it did get me intersed in SDM. well i hope that I will be able to possibly attend next year. thanks for all of the info!</p>
<p>I hope you do, BwayBound. I can truthfully say that attending SDM for three summers ('03, '04, '05) was the best decision I ever made, even though I will not be pursuing a theater career. I was lucky enough to work with professional actors and directors, as well as other talented campers, and make the best friends of my life. It’s given me confidence both in and out of the theater…and I won’t even be going into theater in college.</p>
<p>I’m so surprised that no one is posting in this thread!! Is nobody’s kid at SDM this first session? Mine is, and I’m looking forward to performance weekend only a week from now.</p>
<p>mtboymom, I know your son is there too. Congratulations on his wonderful casting!</p>
<p>Yeah, I don’t know where they are but maybe there are less CC posters there this year. Yes, congrats to both BrownSugar’s D and MTBoymom’s S’s casting! Woot! A young girl from our community, whom my D used to give vocal coaching lessons to is playing TiMoune in Once on This Island, which ironically was the role my D played there at the same age (11). I don’t know how many current SDM families read this site though. My D is visiting SDM TODAY, her first time back since her last session there two years ago. She was so excited to return for a visit. I hope everyone is having a great time and I look forward to hearing about first session’s performance weekend.</p>
<p>SoozieVT, I wrote my D that your D was visiting today with R, and told her to look out for them! Because your D’s last session was my D’s first, she might not even know who my D is though, as she hadn’t yet made a ‘name’ for herself there, and your D naturally was focusing on her last hurrah! I’m sure today will be a wonderful walk down memory lane for her.</p>
<p>BS…I don’t think my D knows who your D is either. They truly only overlapped for three weeks and were not in shows/classes together. </p>
<p>I joked to my D that after being in 15 casts of Our Time Cabaret and singing the final song, “Our Time” with the following lyrics, it was kinda what she was doing today:</p>
<p>“Years from now,
We’ll remember and we’ll come back,
to this theater, and hang a plaque:
This is where we began,
Being what we can.”</p>
<p>SDM is where it truly began for my child and has had a significant impact on her life. Besides all that she learned and gained there and experienced, and all the cherished memories, her SDM friendship bonds remain very close and she continues to work with Stagedoorians in the theater world. Sorry that she won’t be able to see your D’s shows or any shows for that matter, on performance weekends. Break a leg to all first session campers! I might go see a show in my region tomorrow night and come to think of it, the girl playing the lead is also is a current SDM camper.</p>
<p>Wow this thread is still going haha. Soozie, how awsome for S. to be back at SDM! It must be both a great day and a sad day for her, but I am sure she is having a blast.</p>
<p>BS, what show is your D. in? If you don’t want to post it here you can always PM me. </p>
<p>I am trying to go up either second or third to see the shows as I have friends going those two sessions, so if anyone will be there those sessions def. let me know!</p>
<p>Hi, BrownSugar. Just told my d that your d is at sdm 1st session.</p>
<p>We will be driving her up there in just 10 days from now. We are all feeling her adrenaline rush with her countdown with her friends/roommates. Hoping we meet at performance weekend for 2nd session.</p>
<p>So - Because of all you fine people on CC - Daughter #2 will be attending SDM for the first time session #3. She is 15 - feeling like she might be a little ‘old’ to be a ‘first-timer’ - but getting her 16 bar song ready and taking as much ballet as she can before she goes. (dance is her weak point…)</p>
<p>Older sis is at NYU CAP 21 (thanks CC’ers) and working at Forestburgh Playhouse this summer - about 1/2 hour away from SDM! She won’t be able to see little sister on performance weekend - as she will be performing herself. Ah - the life on the stage!</p>
<p>I’ll keep you posted which show she will be in.</p>
<p>Jane…haven’t spoken to you all year! How has your D liked CAP? Congrats to her in being hired at Forestburgh Playhouse! My D’s friend in CAP worked there last summer. It is close to SDM! I forgot all about talking about SDM with you in regard to your younger D a long time ago and am glad to hear that she is signed up to go this summer. She should love it. Don’t worry, many campers are brand new at age 15. That is not a problem at all. Within a day, she will have pals. Well, when you fly in to see younger D’s performance weekend, you can catch your other D’s show too! How did you ever manage to have both end up near one another?? I no longer get to see performance weekends at SDM but maybe one day I’ll meet ya at CAP21 and hopefully our D’s will meet there as well. Hope both your girls have a super summer.</p>
<p>I started SDM at 14 and I’d say there were more kids that were older than me at the time!</p>
<p>OT: I just watched the documentary Stagedoor, which was filmed my first summer. Sooviet, if your daughter is who i think she is (from what I’ve gathered from lurking on this thread), her singing in the movie is FANTASTIC. I highly recommend the documentary to anyone with a connection to the camp. I do think their portrayal of OTC was rather correct, as a general whole, at least that summer…I think it improved over the next few years, but I remember that summer as being particularly bad, speaking as someone that wasn’t in OTC and did only dramas (and therefore had no desire to be in OTC).</p>
<p>MM…I don’t know who you are but maybe you and my D knew one another? or maybe from afar? In the Stagedoor documentary movie, filmed in 2003, my D was just 14 years old. Were you that age that summer too? That session she was The Leading Player in Pippin. Yes, she was in OTC and yes, she is in the film. In the film she is in the Acting Master Class scene. She also is in OTC rehearsal footage such as tap dancing and then rehearsing her solo by the piano of the song called Carousels. I think the opening of the film, when you hear the background singing (not matching the visual footage), that is her singing Carousels too. The rehearsal footage was singing but not acting/performing the song. Also, in the movie, in that whole OTC “drama” that got Barb and the staff upset, my D offered to be the spokesperson who got up in front of the whole camp to “apologize” for the cast of OTC. She wasn’t into the behaviors of some of the cast members and not a part of that aspect, but felt it was important to make things right. So, that is who she is in the film if you were guessing that person. I’m gathering that if you attended in '03, '04, and '05, that you may know my D as she was there those years as well, though only three weeks in '05. I may have seen you on stage for all I know! Unfortunately, I haven’t seen many of the dramas at camp and tended to watch many musicals. I have seen the dramas in the Garden theater though such as Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and The Crucible, as my D had friends in those shows.</p>
<p>Mamalu! How are you? My D will be so happy to see your D soon, as my D is there for 1st and 2nd this summer. Tell her hi from me. We’ll definitely be there for performance weekend second session, and look forward to seeing you then. We can’t wait to go up this weekend for 1st session performance weekend!</p>
<p>Jane, my D was there at age 15 for her first time, too. I can say from personal experience it worked out beautifully for her. As others have said, she will make friends VERY quickly. My D is now 17 and in her third summer at SDM.</p>
<p>DefGrav, my D was thrilled to be cast in a principal role in the C Show in the Garden Theater, and also in Players Ensemble. Thanks for asking!</p>
<p>I did indeed know your daughter, but god knows if she knew who I was. I thought she was excellent in Pippin. Though we weren’t friends, I had no problem whatsoever with her at all. Some of the OTC people…eh…but people like your daughter, as well as some of my friends in OTC (the title characters in Romeo and Juliet, Juliet’s real life younger sister–I don’t want to use names online) were nothing but awesome people. </p>
<p>I was in the Laramie Project in '04 and The Heart Rising in '05. Your daughter I think was there first session '05, right? I heard she was great in J&H.</p>
<p>Thank you for the positive feedback regarding Pippin. My D loves that musical. I don’t know who you are but that’s OK, lol. I understand your point about some kids’ attitudes in OTC. My D didn’t think that was good either. While she wasn’t a part of the behavior, she offered to be the spokesperson, as she does care about OTC and about other campers’ perceptions and feelings. She is very much against diva behavior.</p>
<p>Yes, I don’t want to use names either. But I know who you mean in Romeo and Juliet. Romeo has been a lifelong friend of my D’s and has been her “Romeo” as well in the past, and they are still very close friends and go to the same college now. He also was a lead in Laramie Project which went up at the same time as my D’s show. She ran out of her show (Nine) in the Elsie as the applause ended to catch the end of your show, lol. But we had to get a video Laramie Project so we could watch all of it. Juliet was one of my D’s very close friends and roommates. I know her younger sister too who still goes to camp, who is also a lovely person. Yes, in 2005, my D only went first session, though she always attended six weeks all her other summers. But, she had just graduated HS (she graduated early) and was heading to college and we just couldn’t send her for six weeks, as she also had to work and make money. Since she was still sixteen, we let her go back for one last hurrah, however. But the majority of her friends, who were all older than herself, were not back that summer. Yeah, she was Lucy in Jekyll and Hyde that final time at SDM. Good luck to you as you head off to your dream school!</p>
<p>We’re back from 1st session performance weekend at Stagedoor. I FINALLY got to meet mtboymom and put another face to our college confidential friends! We also saw MANY of the shows this weekend. What a thrill all around!</p>
I no longer get to see performance weekends at SDM 
but maybe one day I’ll meet ya at CAP21 and hopefully our D’s will meet there as well. Hope both your girls have a super summer.</p>