Interview: Brian Roes
Last month I had the opportunity to sit down with Brian Roes, founder and director of Camp Bara’, a Messianic Jewish children’s drama camp that takes place every summer at Beth Israel Messianic Synagogue in Jacksonville, Florida. The camp focuses on teaching principles of scripture through drama and other creative means. Over the two weeks that the kids are there, they write, design, produce, and perform a play from scratch, almost entirely from the children’s creative minds. Our conversation took place just days before the camp’s final performance, which is always something incredibly unique and entertaining. I wanted to know more about Brian’s approach to creativity in his work.
First of all, thanks for taking the time to meet with me in the midst of everything you have going on with the Camp.
I’m glad we could do it, and thank you. Its nice to take a coffee break.
Jumping right in, what made you want to start writing and directing? What got you into it?
When I was 10 or so, I wrote a little skit for a Vacation Bible School performance. I remember my classmates really enjoyed themselves, and I had a lot of fun doing it. Also, my sister and I used to make music videos with our family’s video camera. After I became a professional music and drama teacher, I began to see firsthand that children and adults alike love to tell and hear stories in creative ways. After some professional development and a lot of getting over myself, I began to turn the stories in my imagination into scripts. Then I was challenged by some mentors to go a step further give that process over to the children.
As in, letting them take creative control?
Yeah. I began to give them the freedom, but also the structure, they needed to create their own productions without their ideas needing to be filtered through my creative process first.
Was it challenging making that transition? Letting go of the creative process in that way?
I think the biggest challenge for me was letting go of the end result. A lot of directors, when dealing with a production where the cast is comprised of children, have a somewhat static and pre-defined end in mind. They purchase or write a script and then think to themselves “if I can just get them to do what’s written down here I’ll be safe and we won’t have a disaster on our hands.” So the whole production becomes an exercise in trying to get kids to fit into the director’s ideas. I’ve developed a method of directing children that’s very different. I start with a general framework, but let most of creativity come from the kids. My job is to guide their creativity, but not try to cut it short if it veers from what I had in mind. That’s the biggest challenge I think. Letting go of the outcomes.
You’ve touched on a really interesting point there with regard to letting go. That’s seems applicable to almost any creative medium.
I think so. All art inherently has some element of risk, I think, whether it be trying something you’ve never done before, or just putting yourself out there creatively for people to see.
How would you define creativity?
Man, that’s a doosie. My best attempt…the ability to use one’s own imagination to create a new and original product by reworking and reinventing the basic elements of an idea.
It sounds like you’ve been asked that before.
Ha! Well, I think that’s what all of the great inventors, philosophers, thinkers, and motivators do. It’s also what most children do when they’re immersed in constructive play. Creativity is taking elements of something that already exists, playing with those elements in different ways, and making them into something else.
Essentially, there’s nothing new under the sun?
Right, in the sense that the ultimate source of our creativity is the God of Israel, and he’s the only one who has ever created something from nothing. As human beings we’re limited in our ability to create because we have to first start with elements that already exist. Scripture says that the Son, Yeshua, is the image of the invisible God and in him all things have been created “through him and for him.” Whatever it is we happen to stumble upon during our own creative musings are really just a speck of something HaShem has already created. But still, I think the Lord loves it when we do create.
For you, what’s the biggest hurdle to get over during the creative process? What gets in your way?
Trying to do more than one project at a time will kill my ability to be productive. I have gotten to the point where I will only work on my current project regardless of the start date of my next project. If that means I’m really crunched when the next thing starts, then that’s how it is. Trying to separate creative energies in multiple directions gets me nowhere. I have learned how to multitask the menial details that prepare me to move on to the next project, but the creative elements just need to wait. Otherwise I seem to botch up both projects.
Are there any fears that you have to get over when writing and directing? In other words, are there things internally that you have to overcome?
Oh, you bet. Most of my fears though have to do with what I mentioned earlier, the idea of letting go of my perceived right to control the final product of what I write and direct…especially when working with children. I think I’m learning my lesson and getting over this fear more as time goes on. It’s pretty humbling when time after time six-year-olds come up with better ideas than me.
Do you ever take credit for a kid’s good idea and then kick him or her out of the play so that no one is the wiser?
Ha! That’s a good idea. I’ll need to try that sometime…don’t tell anyone!
Rapid fire question. What sort of things inspire you?
The scriptures. There’s an endless amount of awesome themes and literary concepts to be inspired by, and the coolest thing is that they’re true stories. Thinking about the love of Adonai. More obscurely…recordings of children singing beautiful, unusual songs. My Rabbi. Underdog stories. Friends who have tried and tried and tried again, and are still trying. They inspire me. Also, really nice notebooks and pens help the ideas flow better.
Camp Bara’ serves many Jewish children, but also non-Jews as well. Is it challenging creating content for kids with widely different backgrounds?
Not really, though there are sometimes widely different experiences on both sides. There are some Jewish children that have had a lot of exposure to Jewish lifestyle, like the holidays and Torah, but very little or no New Covenant concepts. For those kids it seems like it’s an easier transition, because Yeshua fits so perfectly into those things. On the other side, there are those kids that have been raised in church, who have a lot of knowledge of Yeshua, but for them Camp Bara’ is their first experience with Jewish world. It’s all new to them. But that can be a positive, as they’re not coming in with preconceived notions as to what Jewish culture is. I always try to remember that these children are going to grow up to be doctors, lawyers, intellectuals, teachers, politicians, and philanthropists. Even if Camp Bara’ was their only experience with Jewish culture and heritage, they’ll remember it as a positive experience in their life. We are building an emotional and personal connection in their hearts with the Jewish people and the God of Israel. Those are the kinds of things that stay with a kid as he or she grows up.
Well said. Final question. If you could travel to any planet, what food would you eat when you got back?
Uhh. Taco salad?
Sorry. The correct answer was baked beans.
Ha! I should have known.
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In addition to his role at Camp Bara’, Brian is the Shabbat School Director at Beth Israel Messianic Synagogue as well as the music and drama instructor at Riverside Presbyterian Day School in Jacksonville, Florida. He has written multiple dramatic productions performed in venues ranging from outdoor stages to The Florida Theatre.
For more information on Camp Bara’, visit www.CampBara.com. Follow Brian on Facebook or Twitter.
*During my interview, Brian credited The American Orff-Schulwerk Association and their work as influential in his development in children’s education.
J. Burke
