RAC Full of Stars

The schedule for the Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts called for a rest time in the afternoon, but the students in Rhodes Arts Center didn’t appear to be resting. Instead, they did backbends on floor mats in the theater, hopped down to play a bit of jazz on an electronic keyboard, and danced across the floor.

“It’s been amazing; the kids are absolutely stunning,” said Rob Bishop, a Summer Stars teacher. “They’ve been stellar to work with. They’re picking up songs and kicking butt.”

For the last three years, Northfield Mount Hermon has hosted Summer Stars, a 10-day camp that offers economically disadvantaged students the chance to take tuition-free classes. This year, campers moved from the Northfield campus to Mount Hermon, where they had access to the new Rhodes Arts Center for the first time.

“The theater is spectacular,” Summer Stars Director Donna Milani Luther said. “It’s so beautifully designed and so well set up; it’s a dream to do shows there.”

The Summer Stars program lets campers choose from 12 classes, including singing, acting, set building, and songwriting. Classes culminate in a Saturday performance, which this year takes its theme from the Matisyahu song “One Day.” The show takes place August 7 at 5 pm in the Rhodes Arts Center theater, and is free and open to the public.

Before adopting the current name in 2005, Summer Stars was known as the “Britney Spears Camp for the Performing Arts,” and staff also operated “American Idol Camp.”  According to the Summer Stars website “though the name has changed, the staff, the program and the results have not.”

Milani Luther said she appreciated the chance to bring students out of cities like Boston and New York, where most of them live, and into a more rural setting.

“We bring kids out from concrete playgrounds to this spot – and they love it,” she said.