Elevate Acting: Harvard University

---

Learn the Craft of Acting for Film

 

Many high school students will get the theater bug at some point and act in their school’s musicals and plays. At the Academy’s Teen Acting for Film Camps, we aim to harness that excitement and energy for the stage and help young aspiring actors to make the transition to the screen.

Whether a student has theatre acting experience, performed in a few short films with friends, or simply is taken by the dream of becoming an actor, our acting summer camps offers many possibilities to deepen your training and ultimately, to help guide you towards your dreams!

Acting Camps

In the Academy Acting for Film camps, students are immersed in an intensive, professional educational experience, combining fun, experiential, interactive classes with direct, hands-on acting in front of the camera. Depending on your particular goals and experience, we likely have the perfect match for you.

Offering everything from 2-Day, Weekend, and 1-Week camps to full-time 3 and 4-Week Acting and Acting II camps year-round, it’s our goal at the academy to help you get exactly what you want out of your acting camp experience.

Regardless of which camp a student enrolls in, each graduates with a digital reel of his or her recorded work on screen to show to friends and bring to auditions along with a certificate of completion to demonstrate the student’s considerable accomplishment.

Class Descriptions

At the Academy, we believe in building a strong foundation in the craft of acting. While many of our foundation courses can be applied to any performance experience, what sets the Academy’s summer camps apart is that students get the opportunity to perform what they learn on camera. Not surprisingly, many of our acting camp graduates have gone on to be cast in starring roles in film and television (including “Glee,” “The Middle,” “Parks and Recreation”; the feature film, “This Must Be the Place” with Sean Penn, and “The Knick,” just to name a few).

The Film Academy’s Acting for Film camps thus provide a safe, focused environment where students are alternately pushed and encouraged to polish their craft. Our short-term programs are ideal for those high school students still exploring the possibilities of acting as a career. Our more advanced workshops give those committed students a chance to take their craft a step further. Many of our acting classes collaborate closely with our film and digital programs, so that students may audition and be cast in student work.

Below is a sampling of some of the classes those in the summer acting camps for teens can expect to take.

SCENE STUDY

Working on scenes from published plays and screenplays allows actors to learn all of the basic concepts of approaching a scene: defining objectives, breaking the scene down into beats, understanding the arc, pursuing an objective, playing actions, and working to overcome obstacles.

ACTING FOR FILM

Students learn the basics of film acting and are assigned scenes, which are then worked on in front of the camera. Students in the 3, 4, & 6-Week camps will receive an edited version of their scene at the end of their program.

VOICE & MOVEMENT

Students gain insight into the power of their voices and learn how to nurture and control their voices by exercising various resonators and muscles, which enables them to release emotional impulses. Students will focus on breaking down inhibitions, building ensemble spirit, and providing the necessary tools to bring physical dimension to all of their roles.

IMPROVISATION

Through games and exercises, students learn how to let their imaginations run free, how to play well with others, and how to live “in the moment”—free from anticipating or planning what to do next.

MONOLOGUES

Screenplays oftentimes incorporate monologues into their dramatic structures, but more importantly actors must learn the self-discipline to work individually, without relying on a scene partner for inspiration.

FILMCRAFT

(3, 4, & 6-Week Camps only)

We provide all of our acting students with master classes taught by the academy Filmmaking faculty who give a broad outline of the mechanics, language, and production of film.

AUDITION TECHNIQUE

This class focuses on making strong acting choices with little or no preparation as well as bringing your “best self” to the audition room.

Location:

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Harvard University, founded sixteen years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, celebrated its 350th anniversary in 1986. Eight presidents of the United States—including John Quincy Adams, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy—graduated from Harvard. Its faculty has produced more than 30 Pulitzer Prize winners and 30 Nobel Laureates.

The Academy Summer Camps are held in Memorial Hall and Lowell Hall, a Ruskinian Gothic memorial to Harvard’s Union casualties from the Civil War, built in 1878. This majestic structure is conveniently located close to Harvard Square’s historical, commercial, and academic resources.

Gain Hands-On Experience in the Visual and Performing Arts

Offered each summer at Harvard University, the Academy offers its acclaimed summer camps in filmmaking, acting for film, and 3D animation. Harvard is a prestigious Ivy League university, perhaps the most famous learning institution in the world. Harvard is located in the charming, dynamic city of Cambridge, just minutes away from Boston, the “capital” of New England. The University’s roots in Cambridge are widespread, charging the city with a unique and intellectually invigorating atmosphere. In this environment, summer camp students are challenged to achieve their potential at the highest level.

CAMBRIDGE AND BOSTON

Cambridge and Boston, two of the oldest cities in the United States, offer innumerable locations and sites to film, be inspired by in their animation, and to use as locations for acting in student films. Situated north of Boston, Cambridge is a hi-tech and cultured city that has served as an attraction for artists and scholars for centuries. Whether it’s capturing the iconic image of the Harvard Crew rowing down the Charles River or visiting where Paul Revere took his famous horse ride, Cambridge is simply teeming with American history and culture, creating a truly rich environment for students.

In addition to exploring Cambridge, students also make frequent trips into Boston, a twenty-minute train ride away.

SUPERVISION

The Academy students living on campus will reside in Claverly Hall, part of the Adam’s House dormitory complex. The dining hall and classes are located in Memorial Hall. Adams House has often been called “Harvard’s most historic House.” Its former residents include Franklin Roosevelt, Buckminster Fuller, William Burroughs, William Randolph Hearst, Jr., Henry Kissinger, Bernard Law, Martin Feldstein, and William Weld. John Kennedy met with his senior thesis adviser in the Coolidge Room. Aaron Copland lived in the House as a guest. More recently, Fred Gwynne, Peter Sellars, John Lithgow, and Donal Logue have lived in Adams and added to its reputation as a haven for the performing arts. The dormitory is a 10-minute walk from campus and students may walk at their leisure without a counselor from the dormitories to Memorial Hall.

Students spend the majority of their day in class, on shoots on campus with their instructors or teaching assistants, and/or working in professional labs with industry standard software. Following class, when time allows students have the ability to roam freely on campus and patronize establishments in Harvard Square and the surrounding urban environment. Students must inform their counselor of their destinations in Harvard Square and they must adhere to our Buddy System—no student is allowed to roam alone. Although students may explore the Square they must stay within a certain radius of Harvard Campus proper. That radius is clearly outlined at the onset of the program. If any parent requires that their child not be permitted to explore Harvard Square without a counselor, please contact the Film Academy and we will make the necessary arrangements.Weekend activities are mandatory for housed students and include daylong trips. Counselors attend and supervise these outings. Additional activities take place nearly every weeknight and on Sundays as well, and these are optional. In case of medical emergency, students are taken to Cambridge or Auburn Hospital. We require that all students submit their medical insurance information prior to the workshop.

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Although the camp’s daily schedule is demanding, non-commuting students will take part in organized activities in and around the Harvard campus. Cambridge is a vibrant college town with dozens of restaurants, cafés, bookstores, ice cream shops, and pizza parlors encircling the university. One can find almost anything in the city, from independent record and comic book stores to clothing boutiques. A number of world-class museums are in the area, including the Gardner Museum and the Harvard University Art Museums. Theatrical productions are held in Cambridge throughout the summer, for example, at the famed American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.). Students enjoy excursions to the many cultural offerings of Boston, located a short twenty-minute train ride away.

ACCOMMODATION

Due to safety concerns surrounding COVID-19, the academy will be unable to offer housing for in-person camps. Families will need to secure their own housing for campers and provide any necessary off-campus supervision, if traveling to the academy summer camp from another city, state or country.

What is Included

Tuition costs include classes, instruction, equipment and technology. End of course Certificate. Three meals per day.Shared suite room.