“ It’s probably the only summer camp in the world where you’d find a bunch of 15-year old boys running around singing songs from ‘Guys and Dolls’, “says T.J. Shanoff. Between 1985 and 1999, Shanoff was one of those warbling boys at the Sulie and Pearl Harand Camp of the Theatre Arts, and his experiences there set him off to a life in entertainment.
Shanoff, who is a commentator on “Murray in the Morning” on Sporting News Radio, co-writer of the “Sing-Along Wizard of Oz” and director of numerous shows at The Second City, says that even today he’s got Harand Camp in his blood. “I’m going to be 30 in April, and I still make a point of taking days of every summer to play piano there.”
“Haranders” insist that they owe some measure of their success and happiness to what they did on summer vacations.
”Harand Camp gave me the foundation of all the music I play now. I know hundreds of songs, and they’ve proved literally invaluable in my career,” says Shanoff.
“I still know how Harand Camp smells,” says Cheryl Sloane, a former producer for The Second City and various off-Loop productions, who attended camp in the 1970’s. Sloane now proprietor of the G Boutique in Wicker Park says that some distinctive combination of aromas will set off a whole chain of memories.
“Being at Harand Camp was like being part of a big, incredibly supportive and loving family. It was ‘Aunt Sulie,’ ‘Aunt Pearl,’ ‘Uncle Byron,’ and ‘Uncle Sam,”” she says. “Somehow, between them, they knew just what every child needed and made sure every child had it.”
Of course, musical theater was the centerpiece of the camp. Other camps might put on shows, but few have done it with Harand panache – or multiple stars for each lead role. Sulie and Pearl Harand knew, long before it became a national concern, that kids have a very fragile self-esteem.
Jeffrey Weaver, head of the music department and singing teacher at Walter Payton High School on the north side, was never a camper, but has absorbed plenty of Harand spirit in his 25 years there, serving variously as counselor, singing teacher and program director. “A lot of the kids aren’t the most tal;ented ones in the world, but at Harand Camp, that just doesn’t matter. Harand takes the whole competitive thing out of being on stage, so the kids just have fun. Of course, we get some very talented kids there, too,” he says.
Weaver also notes that the teachers at Harand Camp are, and have been from the camp’s beginning, professionals in their fields. “You have artists teaching art, singers teaching singing, dancers teaching dance,”he says.
Those teachers, following the examples of the Harand sisters, spread the praise lavishly, recognizing all efforts, and encouraging youngsters to keep working. “That gives kids a tremendous feeling of acceptance and confidence,” says Shanoff. “The real heart of the camp was the way Sulie, Pearl, and Byron made sure everyone felt really good about himself. And that’s why so many of us came back to camp year after year: It was the perfect combination of feeling important, learning something and having a blast.”

Lerner Newspapers, March 2004