After a successful 2020 summer, the theater camp in the fields and barns of Hackmatack Playhouse will once again welcome children onto the stage this summer.
Whether the stage is outside on the back porch, as it was last year, or inside on the Main Stage, where professional shows are usually performed, kids at Hack-ma-Camp in Berwick will be rehearsing for and performing "Peter Pan" after three weeks of full day camp.
Hackmatack Camp, now in its 42nd year, will run three weeks beginning on June 28 and ending with a performance at the close.
The camp, for children 7 to 13, gives kids not only a theater experience, but the chance to play outdoor games and socialize with other campers in the shadow of Hackmatack's bison farm.
To make it easier for working parents, the camp went from half to full days in 2020. It also shortened the season, allowing families to more easily travel part of the summer.
The camp day runs from 9 am to 3 pm and is broken into small chunks that include a times for kids to take a "drinks, bathrooms, and wiggle" break, according to Sarah Hashem, who will again be the camp director. Mornings start with stretches and check-ins. After lunch campers have games and exercises then more rehearsal and then the day ends with a closing circle, Hashem said.
It is too early to know yet if the camp will follow last year's social distancing guidelines, according to Hackmatack owner Michael Guptill.
"But we are hopeful that this summer's guidelines will allow for a larger gathering than last year," Guptill said.
Hashem chose "Peter Pan" for this year's camp production in part because it is flexible enough to adapt to whatever this summer brings.
"I think the show is just so much fun in general and flexible enough if we had to do it outside, we could," said Hashem, who has played music and worked at Hackmatack for nine years. "The costumes and characters are so distinct that we could do with or without props. And who doesn't love Peter Pan?"
Last year, after schools closed down in spring, camp parents were thrilled to have campers off their computers and outside, dancing and having fun with other children.
"And kids were happy to be doing something with their body and something artistic," Guptill said. "We had favorable weather. and we were outside the whole time, using the outdoor lobby as a stage."
"It was so refreshing just to see the kids having fun," Hashem agreed. "As a school teacher it was sad not to be around the kids from March till the end of the year, so just seeing kids together was great. And you could tell they had been cooped up all year."
Having been through the 2020 summer, and knowing how successful it was, Hashem is more than prepared for whatever comes about this summer.
"Last year it was like 'how was this going to work?' But now that we have gone through it once, it will be a smooth transition," she said.
The fact that kids were all wearing masks and social distancing at school through this year will make it a lot easier for 2021, she said, recalling that she and the co-director last year hand-sewed three masks per child before the camp began.
From Hashem's point of view, one of the special things about Hackmatack's camp is that kids every year get to spend so much time outside on the farm.
"The camp is both indoor and outdoor," she said."You feel like you're living outdoors in the open air. You are getting the experience of a theater production but you are outside on a Maine farm in the fresh summer air,."
Hashem, a woodwinds player who studied music education, first worked at Hackmatack in the orchestra in 2013. Since then she has played in the theater's orchestra, and has also worked in the box office and as camp musical director.
A 2019 graduate of University of Southern Maine, Hashem went to Noble High School and lived her whole life in Berwick, before becoming a K-2 music teacher in Saco.
Camp costs $800 and enrollment is limited, according Guptill. Anyone who refers another camper to Hackmatack gets a $100 discount, he said. For questions or to enroll, families can call 207-698-1807.
