Merrill Arts Center Summer Camps and Youth Theater Programs

Merrill Arts Center Summer Camps and Youth Theater Programs offers 2-hour creative drama mini camps with bubble-themed, sparkle-themed, and super hero-themed theater games, along with matching bubble, sparkle, and super hero crafts and time to play with bubbles. The program also includes Musical Theater Dance Workshops that cover dance audition skills and the basics of musical theater dance, an Audition Workshop with mock auditions and help to select a monologue or song, and an Acting A-Z Workshop that covers character analysis. Additional non-musical theater camps have kids memorize and present short plays of about 10 to 15 minutes, pull props and costumes from home and MAC stock, and present short, workshop-style shows, while musical theater camps rehearse 2–3 songs with a choreographer, director, and vocal coach and memorize and perform a 20-minute workshop-style show, with activities that include learning theater vocabulary, teamwork, and self-reliance, and auditions for youth productions where each child who registers is placed in a role and all kids who audition are cast for specified kids’ shows.

• Ages: 4–18 years old
• Schedule: Mini camps meet for 2-hour creative drama sessions; some camps run Monday–Thursday mornings from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm; musical theater camps meet for one week of afternoons from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm.
• Price: Mini camps start at $29 per child with multi-child discounts; workshops range from $39 per child with multi-child discounts; longer camps range from $299 to $349 per child with multi-child discounts; youth production auditions have registration fees from $189 to $369 with multi-child discounts, and some auditions have no registration fee.

The mission of the Merrill Arts Center is to champion the arts. Camps are led by professional designers, directors, and teaching artists and assistants, with high school seniors and college students often assisting, and registration fees help pay these staff members as well as sound support and technical rentals for productions. For camps, no volunteer help is required of parents, and auditions for some programs, such as the Page to Stage New Play Festival, have no registration fee. Outdoor “In the Park” productions for the summer of 2026 perform in parks throughout Washington County.

Last updated February 23, 2026.