STARKVILLE — A 1920s socialite, an almost founding father’s ghost and a vampire walk into a convention center.
Each represents an act in the play, “Unconventional,” a musical comedy that is currently being written and produced by campers in the Summer Scholars Program at Mississippi State University.
The campers have three weeks to develop the show from start to finish. After that, the show goes on.
“It’s nerve wracking, but it’s so exciting,” fourth-year camper Davis Moody said. “We start with nothing, and three weeks later, we have to perform in front of friends and family and everybody. It’s an adrenaline rush.”
“Unconventional” focuses on a single convention hall over three different eras, with the first act “When Posh Comes to Shove” focusing on wealthy socialites, the second act “Rednecks: Friendly Fangs and Southern Twangs” focusing on vampires and the third act “Constitutional Chaos” focusing on a trio of revolutionary ghosts.
Free public performances at this year’s Summer Scholars play are 7 p.m. July 7 and 1 p.m. July 8 in the Bettersworth Auditorium at Lee Hall on MSU’s campus.
Joe Underwood, camp director, helped to start the program back in 1983. He said “Unconventional” is the Summer Scholars program’s 39th production.
“When I came back to Mississippi, no colleges had any kind of summer program,” Underwood said. “… We started doing a standalone camp for musical theater, and ‘Fame’ came out that year on Broadway. So we came out with Fame Camp that year. Then the next year, we did Fame 2. Then we decided to call it something different … and it kept going from there.”
Underwood said the program now involves students between seventh and 12th grade from all over the country. This years’ campers come from Michigan, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. They audition virtually, sending in videos and recordings of monologues, dance routines, concerts and more.
All of these campers arrived at the MSU campus on June 18, where they will stay for three weeks to create their show.
Eric Fritzius, writing director and former camper, said the first week of the camp is writers’ camp, where students work together to create the script.
“I started in 1989 and was a camper for two years,” Fritzius said. “… This is my 10th year to lead the writers’ camp. And I come back every year because some of my favorite things to have seen on a stage anywhere — and I’ve (seen) Broadway shows — have come out of this camp and out of the minds of the kids that are writing the plays.”
Writers’ camp starts with a six- to seven-hour brainstorming session. Students break out into three act rooms, where they write each act individually with the help of an act leader — staff members who are former campers. Fritzius said the students are given as much creative freedom as possible.
“If you rush into the act rooms with nothing, then it can be hard, because you’re having to start almost from scratch,” Fritzius said.
“Sometimes, we’ll do a light outline and send them in, and what they produce is nothing like what was on that outline, but they have to be able to find their own way. And I may not always agree with their solutions, but it doesn’t mean they’re wrong.”
There is also a new addition from last year — a music composition group.
“Last year, for the first time, we wrote all the original music,” Underwood said. “We used to borrow the music from different places, but we now write all of our own music also.”
By the second week, another wave of campers joins the program for Production Week. This fresh wave of campers fills out the cast of the show, as well as helping with lighting, music, dance, costuming, blocking and more.
Underwood said, when all is said and done, up to 40 people will be on stage at a time.
“It’s grown so much since we started it,” Underwood said. “One year, we had 60 people on stage at one time. But when COVID happened, we had to be careful about how many people we have on stage. This year, we’ll have 40.”
Summer Scholars is a paid camp that costs $1,950 per camper. Underwood said many campers are sponsored by friends, donors and organizations that support their attendance, including the Starkville Area Arts Council’s summer scholarship program.
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