Education Unlimited - academic summer camps and pre-college summer programs

California Actors Workshop offers a concentrated summer training experience in the art and craft of acting. Young actors have the opportunity to learn the crucial skills of building characters, playing objectives, and expressing interior emotions physically and vocally. Students discover not only how to express themselves individually but also how to work as an ensemble, gaining valuable leadership skills while having fun and making friends.

Practice the Techniques Professionals Use This hands-on, conservatory-style program gives students a chance to learn some of the most important and influential acting practices of the modern theater. Our core curriculum draws from Stanislavski’s An Actor Prepares, the foundation of twentieth century realistic acting. Other courses (based on faculty expertise) may include Improvisation, Voice, Movement, Script Analysis, Shakespeare, and Acting for the Camera. Courses become more advanced and intensive over the course of our three specialized sessions.

Learn from Real Theater Artists At the California Actors Workshop, we believe that actors learn best by actively working with professional and academic theater artists who are devoted to nurturing the next generation of actors. Students here immerse themselves in scene work and exercises under the instruction of a top-notch faculty. All of our instructors either teach acting at prestigious universities such as UC Berkeley and Stanford University or have substantial professional acting and directing experience. Additional master classes offer students the rare opportunity to develop their craft with inspiring and accomplished guest artists.

Visit Theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area Located on the UC Berkeley campus, the California Actors Workshop exposes students to the rich theatrical heritage of the San Francisco Bay Area. Actors ranging from Annette Bening to Robin Williams got their starts in San Francisco. Bay Area theaters such as the American Conservatory Theater, the Magic Theater, and the Berkeley Repertory Theater have launched many successful acting careers and have given voice to some of the most important playwrights of the twentieth century, including Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner, and David Henry Hwang. Students at this Workshop will attend plays at professional San Francisco and Berkeley theaters, discuss production choices with actors and directors, and even have the opportunity to see what goes on “behind the scenes.”

Study Shakespeare at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival This year, we are pleased to introduce a new program into our acting lineup- the Ashland Shakespeare Seminar, a weeklong high school program especially designed for theater lovers who want to spend their days studying literature, acting and directing, and their evenings attending professional plays in the artistic community of Ashland, Oregon. This special seminar can be added after a California Actors Workshop session or before the Emerging Writers Institute at UC Berkeley.

Perfect for Beginners and Advanced Actors Alike All students who express interest in acting or theater are eligible for at least one our California Actors Workshop or Ashland Shakespeare sessions. Click on the links below to learn more about our three offerings and the admissions requirements for each program.