Melissa Farthing

Review of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp

Here's the thing: if you've never been away from h...

Here's the thing: if you've never been away from home before, DO NOT come to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. This was me in 2015. It was a total culture shock and an experience that has still scarred me to this day. The camp really is not for people who haven't been away for a while. So, the camp's philosophy is that in order to get to know the other campers better and make friends, students are not allowed to have their phones with them at all during the session. The only way to have ANY sort of contact with the outside world is to mail letters back and forth to people (which don't arrive to their destinations until nearly AFTER the session is over). So, if some sort of horrific accident or emergency had occurred back at home while I was gone, I wouldn't have known about it until eleven days later. That REALLY freaked me out. I believe the camp also had a day where parents could come visit, which is GREAT, but mine were not willing to drive 5+ hours when they were going to see me again in a week.

Another thing that struck me the wrong way about BLFAC was the culture of the people. As soon as I arrived for my contemporary acting theater audition, I was swarmed by mean, cliquey people who only had any regard for themselves and those that they allowed into their little gossipy groups. I guess that's kind of a trend with some artistic people, unfortunately. Although this isn't the camp's fault necessarily, BLFAC attracts these types of kids. Fair warning. The people that were in the "advanced" theater group were definitely worse in attitude than those who weren't (and, for the record, the "lesser" theater group had a MUCH better performance on the final day). I had a very hard time making friends here because everyone had such an inflated ego. Really, I had difficulty finding nice people in general.

The camp also filled up very quickly, much more than I imagined. I signed up several months in advance but still got shut out of musical theater and a creative writing minor (which I guess only had, like, ten slots?) So I wasn't really happy with the major and minor I was put in to begin with.

I will also say that for how much money you are paying to come here, the facilities aren't the greatest. I understand BLFAC is supposed to be a traditional, "rustic" summer camp, but wow, the cabins were pretty much just built out of plank wood scraps. It rained really hard one night, and I thought the building was going to fall apart! It also wasn't fun getting up and going outside in the middle of the night when you needed to use the public restroom. Or walking through the dirt back to the cabin right after you had showered. The theater building, especially the Shakespeare theater replica, was AWESOME...but that's about all that was awesome. Every other buildy felt muggy, buggy and snuggly (ten girls in one small cabin was a little much).

Okay, now for the positives. The counselor I had was one of the nicest, most caring people I have ever met. I was extremely homesick the first few nights and she helped me get through them without being condescending or making fun of me. She was from far away, too (Texas, maybe?) so she could relate to how I was feeling. Later, some of the girls in our cabin got into a minor "cat fight," and she resolved it very well: by making us all sit down and apologize, even those who hadn't been involved. She was also a great flute (?) player! Sadly, I can't remember my counselor's name, but I will always remember the impact she had on me.

Also, the teachers were pretty cool. They each had a lot of experience which they were able to efficiently pass down onto us. One even taught us stage sword fighting, which was lit. The performances we got to see during the evenings at camp (recitals, operas) were also enjoyable.

So, that's my story. I could write more but my character limit is about to exceed. Overall, I would definitely think before coming to BLFAC. You need to have the right kind of personality and drive to flourish here, and unfortunately, I didn't.