SPOTLIGHT: Camp Will Teaching Artist Angel Rivera

In 2016, at 11 years old, Angel Rivera enrolled in Camp Will for the first time. Angel had been in their first show at 9 years old, and, two years later, they, along with their sister, recall being very interested in theater. Their grandmother, a Door County resident, introduced the two to Camp Will, Door Shakespeare’s youth summer camp. Having spent many summers visiting family up in beautiful Door County, Angel thought they’d “give it a try,” and the two were enrolled in their first of four years in the camp.

Angel still remembers what they performed at the end of their first session: a scene from Love’s Labor’s Lost, featuring a dance number to the classic “Rasputin” by Boney M. It was the end of this first year that had Angel thinking, “I need to come back.” For three more years, Angel and their sister returned to Door County in the summer and attended Camp Will. From Macbeth to The Merchant of Venice, Angel performed in scenes in a variety of roles, but their favorite memory, they explain, was in their second year as Brutus in Julius Cesar. 

Partnered with someone who, later in life, would end up being one of their closest friends, Angel took the stage as Brutus and their partner as Portia. They remember the conditions that night; howling wind, a storm rolling in, and a fear that this weather would stop their Greenshare as well as the mainstage performance that evening. But, the two kept performing regardless. As any outdoor theater enthusiast will tell you, it becomes very difficult to hear once the wind starts blowing and the trees start rustling. Actors begin to raise their voices and the intensity of any scene increases dramatically. During Angel’s performance, the wind picked up as soon as the two went out for their scene. They talked over the wind, trying to lift the story, and feeling the intensity of the moment and the weather. They learned to fill the space and really work with their environment. Angel describes the memory as a mark of realization for them; a defining moment when they really got outdoor theater. How the things around them added to their performance, heightened the stakes, and fueled them as an actor.

At the end of their final year as a camper, Angel was feeling conflicted, “I felt like I love this program so much. I love these people so much. I love Door Shakespeare.” They held a deep affection for the program and the company they had spent the past few years with, but they had their reservations as well. “I was feeling like it wasn’t for me anymore. I was growing up out of it, but I still very much wanted to be involved.”

Like all great artists, Angel forged their own path. They proposed to the former Camp Will director, Elyse Edelman, a Camp Will counselor-in-training role. The idea being that

this role could keep former campers engaged in the program and even offer them some teaching experience. Angel started their new role as a Camp Will Teaching Apprentice in 2020. With covid halting in person gatherings, it was necessary to create a new version of Camp Will for that year, but Angel, “still loved having that position even though it was online and on Zoom.” They felt they acted as a great liaison between the campers and the teaching artists, assisting students sprawled across the US from Zoom breakout rooms. The following year, when Camp Will returned in person, Angel reprised their role as an apprentice with an exciting addition: a second apprentice position filled by another Camp Will graduate. Angel talks about the position as a great way to still be part of Camp Will, keeping it as part of their life and their summer while getting to be on the other side of things, learning new skills, and getting to know the artists that they had seen onstage at Door Shakespeare for so long. They took teaching as a new opportunity and a new way to engage with something they had loved for so long.

Ever-busy and ever-changing is the life of an actor, and so the apprentice roles have been taken up by other former Camp Will campers for a few years as Angel worked in Milwaukee, then started their first year of college at the University of Minnesota in their BFA Actor Training Program.

But it is easy to find oneself back in these woods. Today, Angel works at Door Shakespeare as a Production-Acting Intern and a Camp Will Teaching Artist. They have truly created a path for themselves at Door Shakespeare and paved a way for other like minded individuals to follow. They walk through the Garden with years of experience and tell their stories with joy and pride. Their presence on and off the stage is magnetic and curious. And I, for one, am excited to see how the Camp Will campers react to seeing one of their own onstage.

Angel’s advice for young people? “Don’t deny yourself exploration into the arts! Because it’s very often that you will find a space for yourself in the arts that you wouldn’t have found otherwise. And you might end up completely falling in love with it and making your whole life around it! That happens too! ”

To learn more about Angel: https://doorshakespeare.com/cast-member/selma-rivera/

For more information about Camp Will: https://doorshakespeare.com/programs-events/camp-will/