I'd been planning to do this show for well over a year, since I directed it at Long Island City High School in 1999. By the time I got to camp in 2000 I had also performed in a production of it at the Clare Rose Playhouse in Patchogue; I played Reuben, one of Joseph's brothers, and sang "One More Angel in Heaven."

Of all the shows we've done in the six summers I've been theatre director, this one is probably the most ideally-suited for camp; it's short, it's easy, it's fun, it's appropriate for kids (both performers and audience), it's through-composed with no dialogue whatsoever, and if that's not enough, the music is really terrific. It's a cornucopia of styles and influences (Andrew Lloyd Webber loves to steal from all sources, including himself) that manages to fit together for a very pleasing overall effect. The adaptation was a breeze; I only had to cut two songs, both of which were replaced by instrumental music and truncated scenes acted out without lyrics.

Michael Virga again had the best audition; his voice and performace had really matured in two years and he was cast as Joseph, his most prominently-featured role yet. Eric Mogil, who had stolen the show as Timon in The Lion King two years earlier, got the even more over-the-top role of the Elvis-clone Pharaoh. The Narrator role was divided evenly among four girls: Jana Katz, Julie Kerner, Michelle Kremer and Jaclyn Zukerman, all of whom were terrific.

While I was actually able to help out with choreography on this show, remembering a lot of the dance moves from the production I had recently done, Jan did an incredible job on both choreography and costumes. She was able to borrow a whole slew of clothes from the Salvation Army and Goodwill (a practice we have continued in subsequent years), and with the help of Charmaine (the dance instructor) and the arts & crafts staff, fashioned a superb Elvis costume and wig for Eric, and more impressive, the pièce de résistance, an absolutely Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. When I saw this thing, I was floored; it was better than the one we had made at L.I.C. I'm fairly sure we still have it; I've tried very hard to preserve and protect it, not just so we can use it again, but as a memento from this show and a reminder of the achievement.

In a brief speech before the show (which I never do), I dedicated the show to Scott Coskie, who was the director of that Clare Rose Playhouse production but who suddenly passed away in March at age 33, just after the show opened. I had worn a black arm-band on stage for the rest of the run; some of the actors in this show wore black bracelets in Scott's memory.

Joseph may have been the best all-camper show we ever did; it was definitely the best up to that point. It was really the first time that all of the elements came together: singing, acting, staging, narrative, dance, set pieces, costumes; everything worked, and the material itself was as ideal as anything could be. This should be the show featured most prominently on the camp's promotional materials; nothing else worked this well, looked this good, provided a finer example of what the campers in the Pontiac Theatre program are capable of.
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