This is not your ordinaryBay Area Shakespeare summer camp! A
unique theater experience for
drama students grades 3-12
The Summer Shakespeare Conservatory is rooted in the same passion for artistic exploration that guides Cal Shakes’ Main Stage productions. We ask our campers to set aside limits: to be courageous and open to surprise as they immerse themselves in the immediacy and power of Shakespeare’s plays. We offer opportunities to engage creatively with professional artists and fellow students campers through expressive language, deep acting process, active investigation of historic context, and public performance.
Working with professional teaching artists—experienced teachers who are artists in their own right—Summer Conservatory students spend the morning studying acting, voice, physical comedy, stage combat, movement, improvisation, text, and more; afternoons are for rehearsals, where all the disciplines come together to create a fully-realized, specially-adapted public performance of a Shakespeare play on the final day of the Summer Conservatory session.
NEW THIS YEAR: Tech/Design Conservatory
For the first time ever, Cal Shakes is offering a limited number of high school students the unique opportunity to learn about the creative work that goes on behind the scenes of theater. Our Tech/Design track will introduce students to the design fundamentals and practical skills needed to work with lighting, sound, sets, costumes, props, scenic painting, and more. Using a Shakespeare play as inspiration, T/D students will work with their own tech director and master designers to learn the crafts of production. Students will focus on a different production department each week, in addition to participating in core acting classes in the mornings.
Former Cal Shakes Conservatory student Zendaya gives a shout-out to her summer camp days with us. ___________________________________
“I felt more at home and myself
during the five weeks at Cal Shakes
than I have for my whole
middle school experience” —five-week camper
DATES AND TIMES
Five-week Conservatory* at Bentley Upper School: June 18–July 21; 9am–3:30pm
Two-week Conservatory at Bentley Upper School: July 23–August 3; 9am–3pm
COST
Five-week Conservatory: $1375
Two-week Conservatory: $600
A 50% deposit is required to hold a spot for your student. Payment plans are available. Call Daunielle at 510.809.3293 to set one up. *Enrollment in Five-week Conservatory is dependent on an interview; no audition is required.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Financial assistance is available. Contact Jenna Stich at jstich@calshakes.org or 510.548.3422 x105 for information and an application.
REFUND POLICY • Cancellation up to four weeks before conservatory session begins = 100% refund, minus $50 processing fee.
• Cancellation up to two weeks before conservatory session begins = 50%
refund, minus $50 processing fee.
• Cancellation within two weeks of conservatory session start date = no refund.
CONTACT
For more information about this exciting theater opportunity for your child, contact Daunielle Rasmussen, Artistic Learning Coordinator, at 510.809.3293 or or learn@calshakes.org
Dates, locations, and prices subject to change.
ONLINE REGISTRATION
Registered campers click here to access your account.
NOTES ABOUT REGISTERING ONLINE:
The online application process takes approximately 20 minutes to complete; if you are unable to complete the application in one sitting, you can save your work and come back to it as needed.
Browser requirements: PC users should use Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox; Mac users must use Mozilla Firefox.
Cal Shakes uses a third-party vendor for its online registration process; if you require technical assistance with the online form, please call 866-433-4548.
