Acting Camps and Classes: Your AWOL - Basic Lessons and Resources for Aspiring Actors and Actresses

ACTING CAMPS AND CLASSES

Camps and classes for kids and teens that have a special focus on acting in the theatre. Many of these programs also focus on singing, dancing and music. Most programs present a performance on the last day of classes. Most of the camps are day camps, but some are residential.

Some of these organizations also offer classes for adults.

Contact each individual organization via their website for updated program date, place, and registration information.

Many city and county park or recreation departments, colleges, universities, and theatre groups host summer performance camps and classes. Check with your local city and county park or recreation department, colleges, universities, and theatre groups to see what they might offer.

Also check the 'Regional' listings for classes or camps that are operated by regional or national organizations that facilitate classes and camps at a variety of locatons in the USA.

RESOURCES

Of course a website cannot tell you all the information you need to know about preparing yourself to be an actor: unions, contracts, agents, casting, auditions, and the myriads of other things actors should learn about the acting business.

Below are a number of resources that will help you learn about such things to get you on the right road to becoming a successful actor.

From Craft to Career: A Casting Director's Guide for the Actor
by Merri Sugarman & Tracy Moss

Practical, positive and uplifting, the advice in this book is designed to lead to the best outcomes possible for you, the actor, making the transition from craft to career. The reader is given insight into the various types of casting directors across the industry and how that practical knowledge can benefit you and increase your chance of success. While providing an in-depth insight into the role of the casting director, this book explains the j...More

Act ALIVE: The Essential Guide to Igniting and Sustaining Your Working Actor Career
by Andi Matheny

Finally - a modern acting method that cuts to the chase of what actors really need to unleash their acting genius! The groundbreaking Act ALIVE approach, with exercises ranging from pragmatic to deeply personal, will give you the tools to quickly bring your skills to the next level, from audition to set. Actor and acting coach Andi Matheny, who has helped launch hundreds of actors on their journey from pupil to professional, writes in an entertai...More

The Actor's Hustle: A Step by Step Guide to Getting Your Foot in the Door in TV and Film and How to Get Paid from Your Craft
by Shana Solomon & Carlington Neil

The Actor's Hustle is a book designed to help Actors on all levels reach their career goals and start booking quality film & TV roles that will help them quit their day jobs and build powerful relationships in the entertainment industry and grow. This easy read is loaded with Shana Solomon's hilarious, in your face tell it like it is personality as she shares her wild experiences jam-packed with lessons of how she went from a girl in the Bronx wo...More

The Art of Auditioning, Second Edition: Techniques for Television
by Rob Decina

Casting director Rob Decina highlights the difference between the craft of acting and the business of auditioning, and how those two worlds meet in television. Included are proven-effective preparation techniques, such as breaking down a scene, making specific choices, finding the acting moments with thoughts and feelings, and much more. Also included is advice on how to navigate the various steps of auditioning for series regular, guest star, an...More

Acting in Musical Theatre: A Comprehensive Course
by Joe Deer & Rocco Dal Vera

Acting in Musical Theatre remains the only complete course in approaching a role in a musical. It covers fundamental skills for novice actors, practical insights for professionals, and even tips to help veteran musical performers refine their craft.Acting in Musical Theatre's chapters divide into easy-to-reference units, each containing group and solo exercises, making it the definitive textbook for students and practitioners alike...More

Acting the Song: Performance Skills for the Musical Theatre
by Tracey Moore & Allison Bergman

Acting the Song offers a contemporary, integrated approach to singing in musicals that results in better-trained, smarter performers everyone wants to work with. In this new, thoroughly updated edition of the paperback, directors and teachers of musical theater will find guidance in developing and leading musical theater elements, classroom workshops, and the world of professional auditions and performances. Subjects for both versions cover: Sing...More

Drama for Teen Actors
by Christine McClure

Christine McClure has more than thirty years of experience coaching actors one-on-one, on set, and in group classes. Her students have appeared in major features and television series and have worked with Oscar-winning directors Steven Soderbergh, Stanley Kubrick, Sofia Coppola, the Coen brothers, and more. Now Christine puts that experience to work for you by sharing her techniques and giving you a literal front-row seat in her dramatic acting c...More

Respect for Acting: Expanded Version
by Uta Hagen with Haskel Frankel

Since its original publication in 1973, Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting has remained a durable classic and a must-read for all students of acting. As an acting instructor at the Herbert Berghof Studio, Hagen helped to develop the talents of world-class actors like Robert DeNiro, Matthew Broderick, Gene Wilder, Amanda Peet, Austin Pendleton, Whoopi Goldberg, and more. In this book, Hagen offers an indispensable acc...More

The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit: Revised Edition
by Bella Merlin

A revised and updated edition of Bella Merlin's essential guide to Stanislavsky. The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit collects together for the first time the terms and ideas developed by Stanislavsky throughout his career. It is organised into three sections: Actor-Training, Rehearsal Processes and Performance Practices. Key terms are explained and defined as they naturally occur in this process. They are illustrat...More

Breaking Down Your Script: A Step-By-Step Guide for the Actor
by Laura Wayth

This clear, concise and practical guide provides actors with a structured and effective method for breaking down and understanding a performance script. It offers a flexible approach that works with plays from any period or genre, with television and film scripts, and even when preparing for your audition. Inside, you'll find the tools you need for every step of the process, from making sense of the whole script, to breaking it down scene by scen...More

Back to the Body: Infusing Physical Life into Characters in Theatre and Film
By Jean-Louis Rodrigue & Scott Weintraub

Back to the Body: Infusing Physical Life into Characters in Theatre and Film guides you to experience and use your body and its energy as a basic point of departure for performance and expression. You will learn to apply your entire self in acting, with your voice, body, mind, and emotion. This integrated training is designed to combine all these elements of yourself with your material, the environment, and other...More

Activated Script Analysis: An Integrative Approach to Play Analysis Through Creative Expression and Devised Theatre
by Elizabeth Brendel Horn

Activated Script Analysis engages theatre students in traditional formative script analysis through a fusion of devised theatre and various modes of creative expression, dispelling the notion of script analysis as an isolated pen-to-paper task and reimagining it as a captivating and collaborative process. This book uses diverse, contemporary plays to model the script analysis process for each of four Theatrical Elements: Given Circumstances; Character; Setting; and Structure...More

Running a Successful Voiceover Business
by Joshua Alexander

In this "beginner-friendly guide to a voiceover business", notable voice talent, author and blogger Joshua Alexander provides comprehensive and personally-based guidance on the proper formation and operation of a successful business in voiceovers. Leaning heavily into his own operations that have led him to become one of the most frequently-booked voice talent in the industry today, this book is sure to provide you the inspiration and knowledge y...More

The Voice Over Startup Guide: How to Land Your First VO Job
by Chris Agos

Voice over actor Chris Agos walks you through the most effective ways to earn money in today's professional voice over industry, and more importantly, how to keep your career rolling. You'll gain a clearly-defined map of the industry that will open up opportunities you'd never have thought possible. What's more, we've included sample scripts and audio tracks of every important voice over style, so you can hear how the professionals do it...More

The Monster in Theatre History: This Thing of Darkness
by Michael Chemers

Monsters are fragmentary, uncertain, frightening creatures. What happens when they enter the realm of the theatre? The Monster in Theatre History explores the cultural genealogies of monsters as they appear in the recorded history of Western theatre. From the Ancient Greeks to the most cutting-edge new media, Michael Chemers focuses on a series of 'key' monsters, including Frankenstein's creature, werewolves, ghosts, and vampires, to reconsider what monsters in performance might mean to those who witness them....More

An Actor's Guide--Making It in New York City, Third Edition: Everything a Working Actor Needs to Survive and Succeed in the Big Apple
by Glenn Alterman

A Step-by-Step Guide for the Actor Pursuing a Career in New York. A great deal has changed in the industry in the last decade. In this new, third edition of An Actor's Guide--Making It in New York City, Glenn Alterman provides everything actors need to know. You'll discover the ten things that it takes to make it as a successful actor in the city, how to support yourself, where and how to start your life as a New York actor, understanding and marketing "your brand," the best acting schools and conservatories, effective ways to contact agents and casting directors, and more. The author, a successful working actor, also shares many insider tips...More