Welcome to the Happy Camper Live Podcast! Experience the magic of summer camp 365 days a year! Tune in to Episode 13 of the Happy Camper Live podcast for a fun conversation about puppets, playwriting, improvisation, and game designing! In this episode, Roni Gayer interviews Jacob Surovsky, a toy designer and theater artist based out of Southern California.

He is a recent graduate of the University of Southern California with a major in Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation. He started doing theater at a young age, and quickly was drawn specifically to playwriting and puppetry. Since then, he’s been very fortunate to create lots of theater with his incredibly talented friends. Looking forward, he plans to keep telling stories and inventing delight however he can.

Welcome to the Happy Camper Live Podcast! Experience the magic of summer camp 365 days a year! Tune in to Episode 11 of the Happy Camper Live podcast, where Dave Weinstein talks to Happy Camper Live’s photography counselor, Courtney Ortiz!

Courtney Ortiz is the photographer/owner at Courtney Studios.  An award-winning portrait photographer located in South Florida.  Founded in 2007, Courtney holds strong to the ideal that portrait photography is an art that should be enjoyed in the rooms where you feel the most love. She spends the summer photographing the beauty of sleepaway camp at a residential camp in Pennsylvania.  Spending the summer focusing on the creative side of photography, Courtney creates favorite images at camp.

Courtney is happy to be working as a photography counselor year-round through Happy Camper Live. She loves sharing her passion, working with kids, and leading photography-related activities to campers from all over the globe.

Check out Happy Camper Live’s Photography Camp!

Welcome to the Happy Camper Live Podcast! Experience the magic of summer camp 365 days a year! Tune in to Episode 10 of the Happy Camper Live podcast, where Dave Weinstein talks to Happy Camper Live’s dance counselor, Lisa Langford!

Lisa Langford Zahradnik is an Orlando native who began dancing at the age of 7 and singing at age 4. In her early days, she studied clogging and later got heavily involved in musical theatre in high school. During college, she rigorously studied ballet, Horton and Cunningham Modern, and Luigi and Giordano Jazz, as well as acting and voice. Since graduating Cum Laude from the Palm Beach Atlantic University in 2002 with Bachelor of Arts degrees in both Theatre Arts and Dance, she has been teaching kids various styles of dance, theater, and music.

In 2019, Lisa worked at a summer camp as Head of Dance, where she taught various dance styles like jazz, contemporary, and hip hop and created choreography for several different age groups for competitions. She fell in love with camp life and can’t wait to go back!

Meanwhile, Lisa is happy to be working as a dance counselor year-round through Happy Camper Live. She loves sharing her passion, working with kids, and leading ballet activities to campers from all over the globe.

Check out Happy Camper Live’s Ballet Camp!

Welcome to the Happy Camper Live Podcast! Experience the magic of summer camp 365 days a year. Tune in to Episode 9 of the Happy Camper Live podcast, where Dave Weinstein talks to Happy Camper Live’s robotics counselor, Nathan Fernando!

Nathan is a 22-Year-old Computer Science graduate from Rugby, England. Having lived in the middle of the U.K. for his whole life, being connected to summer camp in the U.S. has been a remarkable experience and adventure.

Nathan has worked at a summer camp for three summers (and counting). He spent his first summer as a Robotics Specialist teaching campers how to program NXT Robots using his skills from his degree. The following summer, he worked as an Assistant Division Leader setting up fun events for campers.

Nathan is happy to be working as a camp counselor year-round through Happy Camper Live. He loves sharing his passion, working with kids, and leading robotics activities to campers from all over the globe.

Welcome to the Happy Camper Live Podcast! Experience the magic of summer camp 365 days a year! Tune in to Episode 8 of the Happy Camper Live podcast, where head counselor Steve Slavkin talks to our dynamic duo and Happy Camper Live counselors, Matt and Ciarra!

Matthew Downs is a Toronto based filmmaker, storyteller, and a longtime camper and camp counselor. As a child, Matthew discovered a passion for acting at the Original Kids Theatre Camp, where he would later work as a counselor and as the acting instructor. Matthew is currently bringing all of his passions together on Happy Camper Live, where he gets to create videos while being a camp counselor. He hopes to inspire some of the same excitement in acting and the arts in every camper he works with.

Ciarra Thompson is a Toronto-based dance teacher, actor, and camp enthusiast. From a young age she was in love with everything to do with the arts – be it dancing, singing, acting, or painting and participated in as much of each of them as possible. As she grew up she found her biggest passion of all – teaching and educating. Since then, she has combined both of her passions, teaching and the arts, has become a full-time dance teacher and camp counselor/host on Happy Camper Live, as well as pursuing a career in the acting industry. She strives to show every child she works with just how important their artistic voices are, as well as show them the beauty, confidence, and skill that comes with doing the unconventional.

 

Welcome to the Happy Camper Live Podcast! Experience the magic of summer camp 365 days a year! Tune into Episode 7 of the Happy Camper Live podcast, where Happy Camper Live talks to David Weinstein!

 

David Weinstein has worked as a composer, songwriter, lyricist, orchestrator, arranger, music director, conductor, and recording producer.

He is  also currently the Director of Operations at Camp Starlight in Pennsylvania. David hopes his commitment to young people in and out of the arts is an ongoing endeavor throughout his life. He has produced adapted and music directed recordings for Broadway Junior, TYA and School Edition series for Music Theatre International, Disney Theatrical Productions, Tams Witmark, Samuel French, Stage Works Media, Playscripts and iTheatrics.

He focuses on creative development in musical theatre for stage adaptations, licensing and original work. He has also written music for It’s a Hit!, The Adventures of Flat Stanley, D-Nozzle, the Musical, Manopause the Musical incidental music for James and the Giant Peach (Music and Lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul).

In addition to scoring for numerous independent films and media projects, he is currently writing, adapting, and developing many new projects. David has toured with Irving Berlin’s White Christmas and 100 Years of Broadway. In addition, he worked on A Christmas Story Live! on Fox, Rocktopia on Broadway, and conducted Les Miserables on Broadway. He is also the resident music director and arranger at Nashville Children’s Theatre and has music directed and conducted many regional and university productions, cast albums and educational recordings. Please hear some of his work on his website: www.davidweinsteinmusic.com.

Welcome to the Happy Camper Live Podcast! Experience the magic of summer camp 365 days a year!

Tune into Episode 6 of the Happy Camper Live podcast, where Happy Camper Live talks to Jordan Cody Brandon. Jordan Cody Brandon is an NYC made award-winning actor, DP, and film director. Earning over $5.5 million dollars in donations for his school from a fundraising film he created, Jordan realized how much power he could surge into one film. Now working for a multitude of media brands, Jordan puts flying sparks into every role he embellishes and electrifies all of his film work. He is always on the pulse, a nature enthusiast, a thrill-seeker, and an incredibly HARD worker who brings intensity, creativity, and flair!

Listen to Episode 6 of the Happy Camper Live podcast today!

Welcome to the Happy Camper Live Podcast! Experience the magic of summer camp 365 days a year!

Tune into Episode 5 of the Happy Camper Live podcast, where founder Allison Miller discusses summer camp with new camp friend Stacey Ebert! Stacey Ebert is a camper at heart who has spent over 25 years in the camping industry. Her wide camp experience as a camper, counselor, lifeguard, and aquatics director depict a love of camp ingrained in every fiber of her being.

She is a freelance writer, event planner, educator, yogi, and avid traveler. Since her first overseas trip to Israel at the age of 20, travel has always been a passion of hers. She met her Australian husband on a trip to New Zealand; a few months later, their first date was in Hong Kong. This international courtship only sought to solidify a dream to shift from the traditional. After a 15-year stint in the classic high school classroom, Stacey took a leave of absence with her new husband to chase the sun around the globe. This one-year honeymoon and life as an expat in Australia gave her a unique perspective into multiple ways to live, work, travel, learn, and thrive. In 2012, Long Beach was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. Stacey was heavily involved in the coordination of the recovery efforts working closely with individual volunteers and a multitude of government agencies. This event, again, showcased how life can shift in an instant. With a strong desire to create a life involving more long term travel, more of a year’ round outdoor lifestyle, and a new way to make the world a better place, the two traversed the globe again, then shifted coasts from Long Beach, NY to southern Calif. Six continents and fifty states later, she continues to share her stories, lessons, life-shifting perspective, and travels with the wider world. She lives with her husband in a tiny studio in San Diego, California seeking to help others see their potential and carve the life they want. Check out her blog at thegiftoftravel.wordpress.com.

Listen in today!

Welcome to the Happy Camper Live Podcast! Experience the magic of summer camp 365 days a year!

Tune in to Episode Four of the Happy Camper Live podcast, where Executive Producer Steve Slavkin interviews Ryan Dury, an acrobatic gymnast and coach from Great Britain. He started gymnastics at the age of 3, and went on to spend many years competing for his country on the national team. During that time, he became British champion, competed at the European championships, and won a world silver medal at the 2016 world championships in China. Ryan now performs professionally in the globally renowned, aquatic stage show “Le Rêve – the Dream” at the Wynn resort, Las Vegas.

Listen in to learn more about Ryan and the impact gymnastics and summer camp can have on a child!

Welcome to Happy Camper Live Podcast! Experience the magic of summer camp 365 days a year!

Tune in to Episode Three of the Happy Camper Live Podcast, where former camp attendee Liv Schreiber is interviewed by Executive Producer Steve Slavkin.

Liv Schreiber is a content creator and knows all about the world of summer camp. As someone who went to camp as a child herself, she has a lot of first hand knowledge on the daily life of a camper.

Liv is determined, eager, and has a wonderful outlook on life. She uses her platform as an influencer to spread light and positivity into the world of Happy Camper Live!

Listen in to learn more about Liv and about the impact summer camp can have on a child!