'Camp Getaway's Sophia Says The Show Was "Hard To Watch"

- Camp Getaway -
'Camp Getaway's Sophia Says The Show Was "Hard To Watch"

Camp Getaway kind of just fell in Sophia D'Angelo's lap. The 31-year-old is the founder and CEO of Boston Experiential Group, an event production and experiential marking company, and in 2019 she was looking for a way to have some fun, and getaway, if you will.

Working 80 hours a week was taking a toll ("for anyone who has owned a small business or maybe worked as part of a small business, it's more hours than you can ever imagine," she tells me) and when a friend told her about Camp Getaway, which has weekend-long adult summer camp sessions where guests can act like a kid at camp again — Sophia was interested.

Camp Getaway is nestled on 300 acres in Kent, Conn., which is about three-and-a-half hours southwest of Boston, where Sophia lives. "The idea of being back at camp as an adult was something that was a little outrageous but also really, really kind of entrancing for me," she says.

Image: Bravo

And then, once she heard that she'd be a part of the reality show that Bravo was filming at Camp Getaway, surprise and shock were two emotions that bubbled to the surface. "But it was super exciting," she says. "I definitely had never been in front of the camera before or anything like that ... it was definitely a new experience for me."

Sophia thought about it and decided, hey, "there's never a better time to just kind of do it, so I just went for it."

Camp Getaway is Bravo's newest reality show that follows a similar set-up as Below Deck: the guests change every weekend, but the staff remains the same. The show centers around Sophia and her fellow staff of seven social coordinators, who are essentially professional party-starters there to make sure the campers have a great time. The weekend staff and the campers arrive Friday evening and leave Sunday afternoon and in the 60 hours they're at camp, there's enough drama to keep everyone (especially viewers) entertained.

In fact, in the two-minute trailer for Camp Getaway's first season, we learn that Sophia becomes entangled in one of everyone's favorite reality TV tropes: the love triangle. We see her and fellow social coordinator Adam Mizrahi make out, only to then hear Sophia complain that Adam (at some point, we don't know when) goes home with social coordinator and cast mate Randall Klein, which leads to Sophia in tears and Randall trying to comfort her. This is the stuff summer camp and reality shows are made of, which is great for the viewer, but probably less great for the person going through it.

"Oh, it definitely was hard," Sophia says of seeing that heartache play out in the trailer. "You're going to see a lot of ups and downs, and you're going to see just a lot of real life ... It definitely is hard to watch," she reiterates, "but I think we've had a lot of time between now and then, and time to process things."

Of course, the trailer wants us to believe that Sophia, Randall, Adam (and cast member Gavin Stewart is somehow briefly thrown into the mix, as well) are in some sort of torrid triangle or square, but we'll have to wait and see if it actually plays out like that. That said, when I ask Sophia if she's currently in a relationship, she says, "Oh, I can't answer that question. You're going to have to watch the show first!" It's an intriguing response, one that could lead someone to guess that something must play out...

Aside from bonding with her cast mates and/or maybe or maybe not dating them, Sophia used her skills as a professional event planner and consumer experience expert to help bring the epic Camp Getaway theme parties to life. Working on them was a "cool continuation" of her Monday through Friday life, she says. "I was just so blown away by what the staff does there. Being able to be a part of that was really incredible."

Image: Bravo

One of her assignments as a social coordinator was to help with the parties, with themes ranging from hoe-down to luau to 1920s flapper to everything in between, and then some. Sophia didn't help with the concept — she was more on the operational side, which she loved. "Owning your own company and constantly being the one in charge, it was awesome to get somewhere and someone would just say, 'Hey, can you help me with XYZ?' Instead of coming up with what XYZ is," she says.

Right now, there's lots of uncertainty around what any XYZ will look like in summer 2020, but Sophia hopes it involves camp. "I think we're all clinging to that idea of camp, and being together and outside in the sun," she says. Amen.

Camp Getaway airs Monday nights on Bravo at 10 p.m. ET.

Read more about the Camp Getaway cast:

Feature Image: Bravo Media

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