Blues Enthusiasm Memphis city school children get in touch with their heritage through Blues Camp. by Lauren Mutter hen Blues Camp brings B.B.’s Blues, its original production of B.B. King’s life, to The Orpheum next week, it will be, according to play director Edith Hurt, “so perfect you can hardly stand it.” Blues Camp, a Memphis City Schools summer program, “is the only comprehensive education camp in the blues in public or private schools,” says Hurt. With more than 250 students, it is also one of the largest camps in the city. PHOTO BY DANIEL BALL 15-year-old Moses Stewart as B.B. King The three-week program offers an intensive look at the history of the blues and therefore, Hurt explains, of African Americans. “It’s a disgrace,” she says, that so few African-American children identify the blues as part of their heritage. In past camps, the students learned through a general history of the blues while highlighting local musicians like Joyce Cobb and Jim Dickinson. Students immerse themselves in the production, the culmination of the camp’s work. They do everything from writing the script and songs, to directing the three cameras for the rehearsals and final show. Andy Grooms, a teacher working with one of the elementary groups, says that even though teachers help to guide the creative process, all of the ideas are the students’. They are divided into five “modules,” each of which is responsible for a different stage of King’s life, although the junior-high and high-school modules combine to work on one scene. One recounts King’s visit to his mother’s grave as a child in Indianola, Mississippi; another follows him on his journey to Memphis and his first experience at radio station WDIA. Still another features King today at his nightclub. Two “lead teachers” work with each group and with one another to help make the scenes relate coherently. The “glue” in the story is a broadcast about King from WDIA. Program director Julia Russell opened the camp to all students in the 5th through 12th grades in both public and private schools, but Hurt asked that the restrictions be changed. “I thought there were some young people who were mature enough,” Hurt says. The participants range in age from 6 to 18. They hold auditions – but “all they have to have is a smile and a willing attitude,” says Hurt, the mother of jazz pianist James Hurt and jazz singer Kelley Hurt. Choreographer Tevita Williams estimates that 60 to 65 percent of the students have been involved in the arts before. In B.B.’s Blues, Moses Stewart plays King as an adult. Stewart, 15, has been performing in a family gospel group for at least 11 years, but this is his first summer at Blues Camp. “It has been fun working with the guys here,” he says. “If I’d have known it was this fun, I’d have been trying to get in for years!” Blues Camp is only in its second year, but it is an extension of the Arts Camp program Russell launched in 1989. “It’s an old Renaissance concept,” she says, “teaching from the big picture.... It’s an interdisciplinary approach to retain the dignity of each art.” The students begin with an idea (B.B. King’s life) and break it down into the parts (technical, musical), keeping in mind their final goal so they can see how each part fits together. “I think they’re learning about character and about working as a team,” Russell says. Jerry Kimble, who plays WDIA disc jockey Bobby O’Jay, says that they are learning “how to associate with lots of different people.” They are also gaining a new sense of self-esteem and a new outlook, as reflected in the lyrics in the finale: “Blues Camp blues will never let you down,” and “Wake up in the mornin’ with a new attitude.” Despite the heat and humidity, more than 250 people crowd themselves enthusiastically into the Central High School auditorium at 8 a.m. for four hours a day, five days a week. The elementary students learn all aspects of theatre, from tech to drama to music, while the older students are given the option of “specializing” in one of those fields. Each student is also expected to sell a minimum of $50 in ads for the play’s booklet. The program is tuition-free for public school students and $150 for other students, of which there are only 12 to 15. Teachers are supported through extended salaries, and the program gets federal money. “They’re working real hard to put this show up,” Williams says. The leaders of the program are relying on a core parent group and community advertising to bring out support for children they are certain “can be a light to other kids,” Russell says. “I am a firm believer that arts change lives,” says Flo Roach, Hurt’s co-play director. “I would hope that this would change some lives.” If it doesn’t permanently impact the students, Blues Camp will at least keep them entertained for a good three weeks. And you, for a solid hour and a half on a Wednesday night. n B.B.’s Blues 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 8th, $5 The Orpheum 525-7800