Then, when my entrance music came on-which was “Let’s Hear it for the Boy”-they began moving, kind of like they were robots. And they were frozen in the middle of the tables, standing, when people first walked in. There were actors dressed up like different characters from different musicals standing as the centerpieces in the middle of the tables-someone dressed like a cast member in Sunday in the Park with George and so on.

It’s really embarrassing, but hilarious at the same time. In the piece you wrote for V.F., you reveal that you and your Stagedoor bunkmate both had a musical-themed Bar Mitzvahs. You know, Stagedoor comes up a lot, and there are tons of people whose names we might now know yet. And I have a bunch of friends who went there but not at the same time as me, including Natalie Portman, Mandy Moore, and the singer Joshua Radin. Josh Charles, the actor, is one person that I’m friends with still. What is your favorite memory of being a camper at Stagedoor?ĭid you make any lasting professional contacts while you were there? It’s a really intensive training program for kids that want to genuinely learn the arts at an early age and might want to take it seriously as a career. You work really long hours, you take classes, you go from rehearsal to classes and back and forth, and at times it’s exhausting. It really throws you into what its like to be a professional performer. They joke that no one ever steps on the tennis court or the basketball court. Zach Braff: There aren’t many traditional camp activities there. VF Daily: How does Stagedoor differ from a traditional summer camp? Did you have to sing Sondheim during the nature hikes? Taking advantage of Braff’s new status as a “ Vanity Fair writer,” VF Daily dialed him up to find out more about this mysterious thespian training ground.

In the June issue of Vanity Fair, Braff describes how the book transported him to his youthful summers at Stagedoor, some 23 years ago. and Natalie Portman to Mandy Moore and *Glee’*s Lea Michele has attended its six-week intensive courses-and now it’s enjoying its own moment in the spotlight, thanks to Theater Geek, a new book by ex-camper Mickey Rapkin. The performing-arts camp in Loch Sheldrake, New York (two hours due north-northeast from Times Square), has been churning out future stars for decades-everyone from Robert Downey Jr. Long before Zach Braff climbed into his first set of sea-foam-green scrubs, he zipped up a pair of bejeweled leather pants for a production of Godspell at the Stagedoor Manor.

Theater Geek by Mickey Rapkin