<p>I posted something similar in the USC board, but got no response.</p>
<p>I have been researching theater programs for this summer to help me enhance my acting skills and prepare me for college auditions. I am now considering the US Performing Arts camp(s) at UCLA, Acting Seminar at USC, and the UCLA Acting and Performance Institute. US Perferforming Arts offers a week camp focused on just college auditions which I really like. I really want to go to USC, so I also want to attend it's summer program. UCLA looks like it has a great program as well (cheaper and longer than the USC camp). I want to attend a summer program that will prepare me for college auditions and will help me grow as an actor. If anyone has attended any of these camps, how was your experience? Did it prepare you for college auditions? Any information will be appreciated.</p>
<p>On the Musical Theater Forum on CC, there is a thread that lists numerous summer theater camps and pre-college programs. Here is the link. If you go to the end of the thread, the list in post #101 is the most comprehensive as posters have added to it over time:</p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=122525%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=122525</a>
(however, the dates given are the 2006 dates)</p>
<p>The following thread is an ongoing discussion of many of these summer programs, whereas the first thread was a listing of important information only:</p>
<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=24364%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=24364</a></p>
<p>As well, if you search the Musical Theater Forum, you will find several individual threads on specific programs such as CMU Pre-College Program, etc.</p>
<p>hey did you find anything out? cuz i'm looking at pretty much the same stuff for this summer</p>
<p>Is there any threads with programs for just acting?</p>
<p>so, i know this is old, but i ended up attending the ucla intensive (the one through the school itself, not us performing arts). I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. the acting program itself i found disappointing, as did quite a few people, but some still loved it. it’s very much focused on physical aspects of theater and alternative theater. for example, there is a showcase in the end and at first my group had interesting, but straight, normal scenes for it, and then the director of the program made us change it to be more alternative theater (like we added a clowning scene). the entire time i was there, i think i got to work with a script once, and even then it was a weird play (Melancholy Play if you want to look it up) and it was for maybe a day or two.
however, the social aspect is amazing. you are basically living on your own as a college student in LA. we went to venice, santa monica promenade, the grove, clubs, concerts, basically anywhere. plus westwood is amazing. and the people there are all open and fun and interesting. my roommates were from dubai and greece! so all in all i loved the experience, but would have liked a more structured acting program.</p>
<p>bubblewrapaddict, I was at UCLA this summer too! Were you in Kevin’s group?</p>
<p>The programs offered by colleges are pretty much all about promoting the college. Not all are as phenomenally expensive as CMU or BU. The University of Michigan offers a musical theater program and a theatre and drama academy that I’ve heard good things about, and are not too expensive. University of Minnesota offers a 10 day Stage Elements theater intensive that is really good and very reasonable, although it is hard to get information about it. The most intense camp we have found for actually learning about acting is the Young Company Theatre Camp offered by the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA. Registration for next summer just opened. [ASC</a> - Young Company Theatre Camp](<a href=“http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/v.php?pg=77]ASC”>http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/v.php?pg=77)</p>
<p>Rutgers Summer Acting Conservatory for High School Students is an excellent program. My daughter attended it in 2008 and 2009. </p>
<p>US Performing Arts has excellent short camps at UCLA for theater and musical theater. My daughter spent a week there one summer also.</p>