Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts Announces 2024 Camp Theme: “The Fire Inside”

The Summer Stars Foundation's flagship program, Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts, has announced this year's camp theme will be “The Fire Inside” to inspire campers to find their passion and reach for their dreams.

Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts is celebrating 25 years of serving economically disadvantaged kids ages 12-17 and will take place August 4-12, 2024 at the Northfield Mount Hermon School (NMH), a residential camp in Western Massachusetts. Fully donor supported, Summer Stars is entirely free for all campers.

“My hope is that with this year's theme, ‘The Fire Inside', it will encourage each of our campers to find their own fire inside without letting anyone put out their flame along the way,” says Donna Milani Luther, Founding Director of The Summer Stars Foundation. “Summer Stars is dedicated to teaching success through the performing arts and arming each of our campers with life skills that they can go home and apply in their everyday lives. ‘The Fire Inside' will be the red thread connecting all the camp's programming this summer.” 

Summer Stars will welcome 125 kids from Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey and New York to the NMH campus this year and is thrilled to welcome back many of its extremely talented Teaching Artists, some of whom include: 

• Music with Lisa Pimental. A music teacher, musician, songwriter and music producer, Lisa has also been an educator for more than 25 years in both Los Angeles and Massachusetts. Some of Lisa's music credits include Ghostbusters, Santa Clarita Diet, Rock Band, and Muppet Puppeteers, among many others. 

• Dance with Shaumba-Yandje Dibinga. The founder and artistic director of OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, which is a non-profit that produces innovative and dynamic performing arts programs to motivate, challenge, and inspire youth. Shaumba has been teaching Hip Hop and African dance at Summer Stars for more than a decade.

• Improv with Kyle Wrentz. The Co-Founder/Director of Break a Leg Theater Works, Kyle has co-directed over 40 student and community productions. Some of Kyle's credits include Broadway and touring versions of "The Lion King,” where he understudied the roles of Simba & Scar.  Regionally, some of his favorite roles include The Beast in Beauty & The Beast and Ladahlord in James & The Giant Peach. Television credits include The Tony Awards, The Daytime Emmys, and Dancing With The Stars. 

Additionally, as part of the 25th anniversary celebration, actor, director and writer, Tim Bohn, will join camp to lead special workshops with the campers. 

“I'm always looking for new ways to develop creative projects with courageous writers and performers of every age,” said Tim Bohn. “I'm honored to have the opportunity to be part of this year's camp and workshop with the kids.”

Tim started co-directing and co-producing school musicals when his son was in the fourth grade and his current work-in-progress youth musical, A Dark And Stormy Night, was inspired by those productions. He also wrote and directed the award-winning feature film Good Bones and has appeared on Law & Order SVU, as well as many others. 

The culmination of camp will be the 90-minute show held on Saturday August 10th, which is free and open to the public. Doors open at 5pm. To learn more about the Summer Stars Foundation, or to donate, visit summerstars.org.

ABOUT SUMMER STARS FOUNDATION

The Summer Stars Foundation, a donor-funded 501c3, serves economically disadvantaged kids ages 12-17 through its flagship program: the nine-day residential Summer Stars Camp for the Performing Arts which is presented by the Sonic Boom Foundation and produced with the generous support of Northfield Mount Hermon School. Offered at no charge to the campers, Summer Stars Camp brings together underserved students with a talented staff of master teachers, professional performers, counselors, and guest artists to guide campers on a journey of self-discovery. For more information or to donate, please visit www.summerstars.org.

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