A NoHo Arts theatre review of “Camp Ginger,” written and performed by Steve Traska, and directed by Joy Mameyat this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival.
“Camp Ginger” is an original musical set around a sweet, naive ginger boy whose parents send him to a summer camp for redheads. A bullied child, shy but full of love and bursting with a desperate need to be accepted and to have a real friend, his life is complicated further by his confusion about his sexuality. At the camp, he is bunking with an older kid who seems to hate him, but this boy has problems of his own to overcome. He does make a friend though, and he also learns not to feel so alone in the world. Adorable!
All these lessons and anecdotes are sprinkled with hilarious songs. Songs about being bullied for having red hair and pale skin, god, faith, wetting his bed, being true to himself, finding friendship, love, and being gay. The songs are so charming, childlike in some ways, funny and adult in others. Everything is very tongue in cheek, but also serious and very poignant at times too.
“Camp Ginger” is heartfelt, purposeful and rather wonderful. Steve Traska commits…deeply to this show. His performance is hilarious and also authentic and really sweet.
He plays a myriad of characters and these are stories that seem to come from his own experiences. Every song, every rhyme, every costume change, every dance number, every story rings true. These are lessons well learned and his instinct to share them is adorable and admirable. “Camp Ginger” is also very entertaining!! The audience I was in was having a great time I can tell you!!
This is pure Fringe delight and brilliantly entertaining. As Steve colors with his enormous red crayon in the air, tosses his red feather boa about, and ponders the mysteries of the universe, you know this is going to be good!
The music is brilliant, inventive and endearing, much like Steve himself, and Noel Katz’s lyrics are sublime! It’s a musical extravaganza, with one ginger, a keyboard and some nifty footwork.
I loved it! But then I have a penchant for redheads, my first love was very red and curly!
When:
Sunday, June 12 at 2:30 p.m.
Thursday, June 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Where:
916 N Formosa Ave, Los Angeles, 90046
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