←Recommendations of An Alt-Masc Comedy

Quickly earned its way on to my favorite plays list lol. Fantastic jokes, wonderfully earnest at times, meta, queer, campy. I want to see it, direct it, act in it. It's just so fun. Of course I couldn't help but think of "But I'm a Cheerleader." Imagine a stage adaptation of that movie playing in rep with Bavoso's wonderful comedy, with McCloskey playing RuPaul's character in the other... Anywho, what a lovely time. I smiled a bunch while reading it, and I'm sure you will too.

Right from the description of the staging of this play I fell in love! Its a wonderful piece to read so as a performance I can imagine it as a thing of joy. Outdoor theatre is a rare treat outside of the world of Shakespeare so I love that John has taken this great story of young people and their experiences and turned it into a wonderful piece of theatre. For me, it also made me feel nostalgic for my own days of Summer camp and the experiences I had there, which I daresay will be the same for others!

This play is just so fun! If you're bogged down by the goings-on in the world today and need something fun, read this play! If you're having a great summer and you want to keep the vibes going, read this play! In general just read and produce this play, it's such a blast!

When I first learned of the premise for this play, I was immediately delighted - "A mid 2000s, queer take on much beloved summer camp comedies of my youth? Sign me up!" - and reading John's writing only confirmed my early impressions. Camp Mannuppia is a joy to read, thanks in large part to its smart character writing and compassionate take on growing up queer - or just non-masc - in a world that frequently demands differently of you. It is hilarious and heartfelt and I would be delighted to see an actual summer camp's take on it. Excellent work!

Gut-achingly funny, sharply observed, and marvelously accessible. All theaters should produce this play, a high-water mark of craft, humor, talent, and sensitivity. Rollicking, meta-theatrical, and effervescent, Camp Mannuppia is, perhaps above all else, wildly ENTERTAINING. When playwrights go hoarse shouting to theaters about the talent that exists in our midst, about the plays ready for production that would grow (and thrill) a theater's audience, John's play is exactly what we're shouting about.

This is the play to produce if your theater is interested in, oh, contemporary social issues, gender representations, identity questions, queer joy, or just about any other edgy, pressing issue circling the atmosphere as we speak. Also: it's just a lot of fun! John's writing is always funny, accessible and artful, but for all its shimmer, this play in particular never shies away from even the most difficult question: how do we become our truest, most authentic selves in a world that imposes its own expectations about who we're supposed to be?

An absolutely hysterical and poignant coming-of-age piece that explores masculinity among queer teenagers in an early 2000s summer camp. Bavoso has written a screwball comedy that is full of tenderness, yearning, and jokes on every page. The metatheatricality also adds a beautiful touch, bringing these issues of finding yourself and your sexuality to the forefront and the future.

"An Alt-Masc Comedy" could not be a better subtitle here. John tackles one of the things that the queer community has in common: a complicated relationship with masculinity. Should we embrace it? Shun it? Fear it? Don't look at it until it goes away? Each character has a different approach, leading to misunderstandings, misaligned gay-teen yearning, general hijinks you would want to see in a Summer camp comedy, and a real reckoning with stereotypes. No one is left unscathed (but also, no heart left untouched <3). In particular, the friendship between Mikey and Darnell warmed my heart.

A moving and heartfelt play about the true lessons one should hope to learn at camp. A play about learning to embrace who you are and not needing to validate yourself to the expectations of toxic masculinity. Well done!

In addition to its fluent, sprightly dialogue, John Bavoso's witty comedy is distinguished by its constant play between what seems to be and what is. Small wonder he employs the device of a play-within-a-play to create a context where characters are never what you'd expect, and even falling into a ditch is no big deal because it's really just two actors off in the wings. At a camp where boys are expect to mann-upp and become "real men," we learn how gender roles are far more fluent than traditional masculinity would have them be.