ASC Theatre Camp

ASC Theatre Camp is a residential summer intensive where campers rehearse for both a mid-session Showcase and a Final Performance Festival. During the three-week session, campers take classes such as verse, rhetoric, and theatre history, and receive training in theatrical skills and styles including voice, audience contact, improv, clown, and combat. Daily life at camp also includes movie nights, pool days, a talent show, a Masquerade dance, and an All Camp Yoga Warmup.

• Ages: 13–19 years old
• Schedule: Three-week residential session with daily rehearsals, classes or training in the afternoon, and evening free time, activities, or trips to performances
• Price: Tuition for ASCTC 2026 is $3975, with a non-refundable $150 tuition deposit; refund amounts vary based on withdrawal date, and tuition covers lodging, meals, and show tickets from arrival

At the American Shakespeare Center, the mission is to advance understanding, imagination, and community by illuminating Shakespeare through performance, research, and education in the Blackfriars Playhouse and beyond. ASC Theatre Camp is open to rising 8th graders through rising college freshmen (or the equivalent for home-schooled students), ages 13–19, and attendance is by acceptance only with applications reviewed on a rolling basis. Camper applications for ASCTC 2026 open September 30, 2025, with a final deadline of May 1, 2026, and applications after that date are considered only if space is available. Financial aid options include a general financial aid fund, the Sydney Stark Jr. Memorial fund, and a Military Family fund, and campers from military families may receive at least half the cost of tuition through the Military Family fund. A full scholarship to ASC Theatre Camp is the prize for top winners of the National Shakespeare Competitions run by the English Speaking Union (ESU) and The Anglo-Mexican Foundation (TAMF).

Campers spend three weeks working with directors, production teams, and each other to mount their shows, and they audition on the first full day of camp to receive casting in one of two Final Festival shows as well as the mid-session Showcase. ASCTC 2026 runs June 24 – July 16, 2026, with Twelfth Night (directed by Hailey Pearce) and Antony & Cleopatra (directed by Mili Koncelik) as the session shows and a Showcase Performance on July 8, 2026. ASCTC 2025 Session 1 Final Performance Festival includes Henry VI, Part 1 and Henry VI, Part 2 on July 3, 2025, and ASCTC 2025 Session 2 Final Performance Festival includes Henry VI, Part 3 and Richard III on July 27, 2025. ASCTC 2025 Session 2 Showcase features scenes from throughout Shakespeare’s canon directed by the residential staff team. The camp is described as open to both first-time performers and seasoned stage veterans, and campers can preview the college experience by living on campus while working on productions. A Camp Blog shares staff posts and pictures of rehearsals and activities.

ASC’s community involvement includes student aid, local partnerships, and collaborations with universities, businesses, and cultural institutions. ASC partners with Augusta County Preschools for Project Goodfellow: Holiday 2025, and the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge offers a Performing Arts Enrichment Scholarship to support local performing arts students in grades 6–12 in Staunton, Waynesboro, and Augusta County.

Last updated January 1, 2026.