Illinois Shakespeare Festival Summer Camps for Youth

Illinois Shakespeare Festival Summer Camps for Youth offers theatre, musical theatre, and filmmaking camps where students create and explore the power of storytelling through crafts and activities. Campers work on theatre skills such as Shakespeare’s text, physical character work, stage combat, movement, and voice while collaborating as a company to produce one-act versions of Shakespeare plays, and some camps include public performances during the last week of camp. Additional camps focus on musical theatre for middle and high school students who want to sing and dance, including group numbers, solos, and duets, and a filmmaking camp where students learn the fundamentals of filmmaking and collaborate to write, direct, and edit their own short films.

• Ages: 8–18 years old
• Schedule: Bard Buddies meets for 5 days, while Shakespeare’s Apprentices, Shakespeare’s Players, Broadway Basics, and Broadway Dreamers each run for 3 weeks, and the Filmmaking Camp runs for approximately 2 weeks, with options in the morning or afternoon Monday–Friday.
• Price: Bard Buddies $125 per student; Shakespeare’s Apprentices and Shakespeare’s Players $275 per student; Broadway Basics and Broadway Dreamers $275 per student or $175 with a morning camp; ISF Filmmaking Camp $200 per student.

The Illinois Shakespeare Festival Summer Camps for Youth program began in 2017 as part of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, which was established in 1978 as a professional repertory company. The Festival’s Summer Camps for Youth allow students entering grades 1–12 to perform adaptations of Shakespeare on the same Festival stage as the professionals, and limited scholarships are available for camps. The Illinois Shakespeare Festival is led by an artistic and administrative team that includes Artistic Director Robert Quinlan, Producer Ann Haugo, Managing Director Derek R. Munson, Production Manager Allie Nicholson, Dramaturg Kee-Yoon Nahm, Personnel and Communications Manager Natasha Warloe, Center for the Performing Arts Manager Nick Benson, and Scott Irelan, Dean of the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts. Camp staff include Dr. Jimmy Chrismon, a member of the theatre teacher education faculty at Illinois State University with 17 years of high school theatre teaching experience and work as an actor and director, along with senior theatre and musical theatre majors Mia Petillo, Molly Fritz, Sophia Joyce, and Maddi Fetterman. The Illinois Shakespeare Festival Society, founded in 1983, serves as Central Illinois’ community support wing for the Festival and includes individuals, businesses, corporations, and foundations that support activities such as the John Stevens Memorial Golf Outing and the Bard Bash.

Last updated January 11, 2026.