Berkeley Rep Summer Programs

Summer 2025 Dates and Tuition to be Announced

Let’s get creative! 

In this one-week summer program, we welcome all young artists to explore the fundamentals of storytelling through acting, voice, movement, improv, and even live musical accompaniment! Working together with their peers and our professional theatre artists, students will harness their creative power and develop valuable tools such as communication, confidence, and problem-solving skills, all while creating a short performance to share with families on our final day of camp. 

All students must be 6 years old before the start date of their camp. 

Summer 2025 Dates and Tuition to be Announced

Let’s get creative! 

In this one-week summer program, we welcome all young artists to explore the fundamentals of storytelling through acting, voice, movement, improv, and even live musical accompaniment! Working together with their peers and our professional theatre artists, students will harness their creative power and develop valuable tools such as communication, confidence, and problem-solving skills, all while creating a short performance to share with families on our final day of camp. 

All students must be 6 years old before the start date of their camp. 

Summer 2025 Dates and Tuition to be Announced

Jump in and explore the magic of theatre-making by performing in an original play with Berkeley Rep!

Students will harness their imaginative power by collaborating with peers alongside a professional playwright and director to breathe life into a play that challenges, thrills, and speaks to young artists and their community. With daily acting, improv, voice, and movement classes, as well as special electives such as playwriting, stage combat, and on-camera acting, students will have the opportunity to let their voices shine explore a wide variety of creative mediums!

Mid-way through the program, we’ll shift into rehearsal mode to focus on staging, character development, and incorporating the skills learned in classes and electives. Students will collaborate with Berkeley Rep’s professional cohort of artists and designers during this process to add production elements such as lights, sound, and costumes, to prepare for the final professional performance.

On the last day of camp, we invite friends, family, and community members to join us for a performance of this original play starring all summer intensive students on Berkeley Rep’s world-renowned stage! 

All experience levels are welcome and embraced for this dynamic theatrical adventure!

Summer 2025 Dates and Tuition to be Announced

Jump in and explore the magic of theatre-making by performing in an original play with Berkeley Rep!

Students will harness their imaginative power by collaborating with peers alongside a professional playwright and director to breathe life into a play that challenges, thrills, and speaks to young artists and their community. With daily acting, improv, voice, and movement classes, as well as special electives such as playwriting, stage combat, and on-camera acting, students will have the opportunity to let their voices shine explore a wide variety of creative mediums!

Mid-way through the program, we’ll shift into rehearsal mode to focus on staging, character development, and incorporating the skills learned in classes and electives. Students will collaborate with Berkeley Rep’s professional cohort of artists and designers during this process to add production elements such as lights, sound, and costumes, to prepare for the final professional performance.

On the last day of camp, we invite friends, family, and community members to join us for a performance of this original play starring all summer intensive students on Berkeley Rep’s world-renowned stage! 

All experience levels are welcome and embraced for this dynamic theatrical adventure!

Summer 2025 Dates and Tuition to be Announced

Lights, camera, action! Delve into the fundamentals of filmmaking and explore all major disciplines of the craft including screenwriting, directing, acting, and editing/post-production. Students will get to develop and produce their own original pieces, which will be shown at a final short film screening for friends and family the last day of class.

Summer 2025 Dates and Tuition to be Announced

Are you ready to dance, sing, and act your heart out? Join us for this dynamic, super-charged musical theatre camp featuring Musical Direction by Daniel Feyer (Hamilton National Tour Accompanist)!

This two-week summer intensive is a unique opportunity for students to reach the next level in their musical theatre training and learn from a team of professional theatre artists. During the first week, students will expand their technical skills in dance, voice, and acting through a rigorous training regimen that challenges each student to cultivate their artistic prowess. 

Week two is performance-focused as students begin a rigorous rehearsal process, culminating in a live cabaret-style presentation on stage in Berkeley Rep's renowned theatre. 

Designed for aspiring triple threats, this program offers specialized training for students to hone their skills. This camp welcomes all levels of performer, and is the perfectly tailored to help any young artist take the next step on their artistic journey.

Samuel Tomfohr is a filmmaker and actor who holds a BA in Film from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Film Directing from Columbia University. He is also a former Fulbright Scholarship recipient in filmmaking to Brazil.  His past short films have screened in film festivals throughout the US. He has taught courses and workshops in screenwriting and filmmaking in New York and Brazil. More recently Sam has been acting in Bay Area theatre and short films. Sam loves the collaborative nature of film and continues to write scripts and stories for future work. He lives in Oakland.

Dylan Russell is an actor/director/teaching artist and playwright who loves working with young theatre makers. She started her career in San Francisco at New Conservatory Theatre Center as a touring actor in their YOUTH AWARE program and teaching acting classes. Dylan has taught actors of every age, from 5 years old to 75 years old. Last summer, she directed the High School Summer Intensive students in Alex Moggridge’s The Albatross.

Dylan created the acclaimed OUR STORIES program at Laguna Playhouse, through Orange County Healthcare Agency, utilizing generative theatre practices to create awareness about mental health and amplify the voices of youth and young adults ages 16-25. Dylan was the founding Director of the Drama Department at Jewish Community High School of the Bay, recognized as one of the top high school theatre programs in America by Stage Directions Magazine and twice performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scotland. She has taught at Laguna Playhouse, California Shakespeare Theatre, Northwestern University's National High School Institute, Marin Theatre Company and New Conservatory Theatre Center. She is the Associate Director of the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre and formerly the Director of Education, Youth Theatre & Community Engagement at Laguna Playhouse.

Eleanor Maples is a local emerging theater artist. As an East Bay native, she has had a long-standing love affair with the Berkeley Rep, and has chased a passion for critically-minded contemporary theatre through her recent years in Berlin, Germany and New York City. As an alum of both Oakland School for the Arts and NYU's Playwrights Horizons Studio, Eleanor has a combined 7 years of advanced conservatory training, and greatly enjoys sharing the lessons she has learned with the next generation of artists. Her creative passions include directing, acting, writing, and costume design, as well as visual arts. In her last year teaching with Berkeley Rep, she has led after school acting intensives for middle and high school students, as well as in-school residencies for elementary schools around the Bay Area. Currently, she is directing an educational production of Charlotte's Web at Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette.

Absolutely! Our summer programs are for students of all experience levels and backgrounds. Our teaching artists will meet each student where they’re at, and make sure to challenge more experienced students, while welcoming and celebrating those who are taking their first journey into theatre.

We understand that scheduling conflicts may arise. As long as you notify our camp staff of your student’s absence ahead of time, that shouldn’t be a problem! Attendance is crucial, however, during the final days of camp as students work hard on their final performances. We ask that students try their best to attend camp during our tech rehearsal hours, which will be communicated to families ahead of time.

For each camp's final performance/sharing we invite friends, families, and community members to join us in one of Berkeley Rep’s performance spaces to celebrate our campers’ hard work. Exact details will be emailed to families a week in advance, but performances are typically around 7pm, last one hour, and conclude with a small celebration in our lobby space. RSVP is not necessary.

We ask that all students come dressed to move, and with close-toed shoes. Please bring water, snacks, and writing utensils. With parental consent, students in 9–12 grade may buy lunch nearby in downtown Berkeley. To ensure student safety, all high school students must sign out for lunch, and bring all food back to eat campus. All other students must bring lunch and remain on campus during lunchtime.

Schedules vary for each program and will be different in the days leading up to the final sharing, but here are some sample schedules:

Summer Theatre Camp: Play Creation (Gr. 1-5)

Summer Theatre Intensive: Play Creation (Gr. 6-8 & Gr 9-12)

9–10:30am: Improv or Voice class
10:30am–12pm: Acting class
12–1pm: Lunch
1–3pm: Play Creation/Rehearsal
3–4pm: Electives (ex: Clowning, Playwriting, On-Camera Acting)

Summer Filmmaking Intensive
4:30–5:30pm: Discussion and Writing/Storyboarding time
5:30–5:45pm: Snack Break
5:45–7:30pm: Film Making 

Summer Musical Theatre Intensive: The Broadway Experience
11am–12:30pm: Dance/Acting/Voice Class
12:30–1:15pm: Lunch 
1:15–2:30: Dance/Acting/Voice Class
2:30–4pm: Rehearsal

After camp childcare is available for elementary programs only, for an additional fee of $100 ($25 per day). After care will take place from 4-5:30pm Monday through Thursday (families are invited for a final sharing on Friday). 

If you have already registered your student for camp and would like to add After Care to your enrollment, please email school@berkeleyrep.org.