Lisa Stanley (Courtesy photo)

The Summer Fusion Camp enjoyed great success in its time at Lawrence Academy, and camp organizers hope to have the same success this summer, moving to the Bromfield School.

The camp is run by co-chairs Steve Peisch, Arts chairman at Lawrence Academy, and Lisa Stanley, Arts chairwoman at the Nashoba Brooks School, and features “a dynamic blend of recreational sports, instructional workshops in visual arts and theater, and good old summer camp fun.”

Stanley created the camp, for students entering grades 4 through 8, as one that would be “reminiscent of when kids had so much imagination and went outside and played all day long,” she says. “It’s fun, we get time in the theater, the studio, and kids use lots of imagination.”

Each week of the camp, which runs for four weeklong sessions in July, has its own particular theme. “We have very fun themes each week,” Stanley says. “One is ‘Stories of West Africa,’ where the students can make masks to transform into all different animals… The animals end up playing a big part in it.”

Stanley will run the visual arts aspect of Summer Fusion. This art section takes up about half the campers’ mornings. Stanley likes the setup of the camp because of its “nice long classes,” she says. “I try to work with two-dimensional art as well as three-dimensional. We work with all kinds of materials, like cardboard and plaster, in order to create masks for the students.”

The mask serves to embody the student’s personality. Part of Stanley’s role as an instructor is to help campers transform their own persona into a mask, while also becoming their particular animal.

Sally Kindleberger, a recently retired teacher and also an actress, is leading the performing arts division of the camp. Stanley credits Kindleberger’s direction as a big part of bringing together different aspects of students’ minds. “It’s sort of fusing them all together,” she says. “It’s the excitement of things swirling around and coming together. Kids put energy in all directions. It’s just fun… In drama, they embody theme, and they turn into the character they create for themselves.”

The week of arts under Stanley and Kindleberger culminates in the last day of the week, where students use their masks and put on a performance for each other. “It’s a time where they culminate all they’ve done at the camp into a skit for each other,” Stanley says.

She does not, however, want to discourage less outgoing students from coming to the camp, saying, “It’s not like a theater camp, where they work to make a big musical or a huge show. It’s not a big drama production—it’s just fun for kids to see each other.”

Peisch likes the idea of the camp because of its ability to expose students to all different activities, but to do those activities justice by allowing long chunks of time for each of them. “There are great teachers here,” Peisch says, “that get big chunks of time to lock into things and help kids get better and get lots of instruction and just have fun.”

Peisch is also the athletic director of the camp. They will play all kinds of sports, especially kickball and soccer. The camp isn’t as competitive as an all-day sports camp, but it does offer a lot of instruction for players of all ages. “It’s not just a sports camp, it’s not just a drama camp, it’s not just an arts camp,” Stanley explains.

“They use imagination,” she says. “There are lots of theater games; we do kickball, soccer, all kinds of athletic games. It’s active, it’s imaginative, and it’s fun… It’s deeper than a regular camp.”

The directors hope for high enrollment in Harvard. Stanley says, “In the past, we’ve had kids [come back to more sessions], we’ve had kids bring their friends, and it’s because we wanted to offer something different to kids.”

To sign up for the Summer Fusion Camp, or for more information, interested parents and campers can contact Judy Cavanaugh at jcavanaugh@psharvard.org.