LENOX \u2014 For Broadway and TV actress Idina Menzel of \u201cRent,\u201d \u201cWicked\u201d and the Fox network\u2019s \u201cGlee,\u201d the dream started in 1982 at the former Camp Olympus in the Catskills, near Monticello, N.Y.<\/p>\n
Singing there in \u201cOliver!\u201d helped steer her toward a career in music and theater.<\/p>\n
This summer, at the Belvoir Terrace camp established here in 1954 on an estate built in 1890, she has created similar memories for 31 underprivileged girls from New York City.
\nDuring a break in rehearsals this past week, Menzel, 40, called the camp \u201ca culmination of a dream. This is exceeding any expectations that I had. I loved being at summer camp as a kid and knew that I wanted to have a camp of my own one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I grew older and had this career, and projects I was associated with have resonated with young audiences, that dream morphed into something that felt closer to a camp for people who wouldn\u2019t necessarily have had the opportunity otherwise,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Camp BroaderWay, the 10-day project that followed Belvoir Terrace\u2019s regular season, ends today with the girls, about to start seventh grade, now back home to perform a new theatrical work before invited family and friends at Columbia University\u2019s Miller Theater.<\/p>\n
Menzel and her husband, actor Taye Diggs of ABC\u2019s \u201cPrivate Practice,\u201d partnered with the Women\u2019s Leadership Institute and the Harlem Children\u2019s Zone, along with corporate and individual sponsors, to raise funds for the free performing-arts session supported by the BroaderWay Foundation set up last year by the couple.<\/p>\n
The actress mentored the students on-site along with Diggs, who taught acting and dancing classes. Menzel and Diggs met during the Broadway run of \u201cRent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The show being performed tonight was created by the students with guidance from Broadway veteran Jeanine Tesori (\u201cShrek: The Musical\u201d), who composed original music and served as creative director.<\/p>\n
Tesori called the campers \u201cincredibly open to the experience .We\u2019re trying to introduce them to a way of thinking and expressing themselves that I hope will serve them well in life.\u201d
\nShe described the participants\u2019 show as a summation \u201cof their experience at the camp a work by us, about us and for us. The girls are really dictating the way the show will go in a way that they can perform it confidently. It\u2019s not about artifice, it\u2019s about being focused and authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel stressed that she and Diggs \u201cboth recognize how the arts put us on a track in our lives that really helped us become the people we are today. We just wanted to give back. I don\u2019t think I realized how rich the experience would be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe girls are also teaching us about the world. When you\u2019re being creative and being vulnerable, you really have to step inside each other\u2019s lives in order to find that empathy and compassion, and to be a true artist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Menzel credited her best friend from college, Heather Zuckerman, for partnering with Camp BroaderWay and targeting Belvoir Terrace, with its performing-arts facilities and staff, as \u201ca really perfect fit\u201d for the project.<\/p>\n
The actress said she plans to stay in touch with girls, taking them on field trips to Broadway shows. She intends to invite them to return to Camp BroaderWay next summer, along with a new group of younger campers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to think we\u2019re giving young women an opportunity to find their voice, and that\u2019s what it was for me,\u201d said Menzel. \u201cIt took me a long time to figure out my voice. I knew there was something in there, but I didn\u2019t know how to express it or show it to the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the idea that they\u2019re spending all day learning that their voice deserves to be heard, and their story deserves to be told. It\u2019s a very empowering thing to do. The idea of feeling that you belong somewhere is very important at their age.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for a return to Belvoir Terrace next summer, \u201cIf they\u2019ll have us, we\u2019d love to come back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For Belvoir Terrace Camp Director Diane Marcus, the project has been \u201ca natural blend of what we offer in the performing and visual arts. It\u2019s worked out really well, and we are definitely open to the prospect of working with Camp Broaderway again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcus retained her teachers, counselors and other staff from the regular summer season to help create \u201ca meaningful experience for girls who\u2019ve never had the opportunity to be in a supportive environment for theater and the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe long-term goal is to make Camp BroaderWay an annual event,\u201d said Menzel, \u201cto learn as much from the Belvoir staff as we can about running a camp, and eventually, one day, to have a property of my own. We have a lot to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LENOX \u2014 For Broadway and TV actress Idina Menzel of \u201cRent,\u201d \u201cWicked\u201d and the Fox network\u2019s \u201cGlee,\u201d the dream started in 1982 at the former Camp Olympus in the Catskills, near Monticello, N.Y. Singing there in \u201cOliver!\u201d helped steer her toward a career in music and theater. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[33,17],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-33","tag-a-broader-way"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/2011_08_21_abw.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Srnq-2N","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions\/301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idina-here.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}