How much is tuition for the asc theatre camp?

Tuition is $3,825 per session. Campers attending both sessions receive a 10% discount on their total session tuition cost. Tuition for the Extended Experience Week (XXW) between sessions is $900.

I want to come to camp, but the tuition cost is a prohibitive factor for me. What can I do, and where do I start?

Don’t worry – we have several options in place for easing the burden of tuition. We want to make camp a reality for everyone, regardless of financial situation. With that said, the first step for everyone towards getting to camp is filling out an application. Applications are free to submit and have no strings attached; they cost you nothing but some time and effort, and they neither obligate you to attend camp nor guarantee you a spot at camp.

I filled out and submitted the application – now what?

We will review your application and contact applicants and their families regarding admittance. Applications are rolling until filled. Campers must be accepted in order to both register for camp and apply for financial aid.

I was accepted! Now what? 

Congratulations on your acceptance! But you’re not done yet – after submitting the application and being accepted, parents and guardians must then register to secure their campers’ place in either session. Registration requires a $150 tuition deposit and guarantees your spot in the accepted session. Acceptance emails sent to campers and their families will contain a custom link to their personal registration form, as well as a link to the financial aid application. Families may apply for financial aid at any time after acceptance, whether before or after registering.

A note about financial aid awards: the financial aid fund provides families with tuition assistance. We do not award full scholarships through the financial aid fund. For more information about full scholarship possibilities, check out the Shakespeare Sweepstakes and the External Scholarship tabs in this section.

The deadline to apply for Financial Aid is APRIL 1.

Financial Aid Applications are rolling throughout the winter and spring. We do two rounds of awards: one in late December and another in Early April.

How is “registering” different from “applying”?

Registering is not the same as applying! As it says above, the ASC Theatre Camp does not charge an application fee (because applying to camp shouldn’t cost you anything), but accepted applicants must in turn accept their acceptances by submitting the registration form – which includes paying a $150 tuition deposit.

Registration is required to hold your place in either session. If you do not register and pay the $150 non-refundable tuition deposit, you may lose your place and move to our waiting list. 

Please carefully review the registration checklists for both campers and parents.

Thanks to the Financial Aid Fund, partial tuition assistance is available to help ease the burden of tuition.

Once a camper’s application has been accepted, they may apply for aid using the custom Financial Aid Application link contained in their acceptance email.

Some things to keep in mind about applying for Financial Aid:

  • Financial Aid awards are not full scholarships.
    • We do what we can with financial aid, but it’s important to know that financial aid awards will not cover the full cost of tuition. Financial Aid awards can help with up to half the cost of tuition.
  • We are unable to provide travel subsidies.
  • The deadline for Financial Aid applications is April 1.
  • We accept Financial Aid applications on a rolling basis up until the deadline and send out award offers in two waves: one in late December and another in early April. Any remaining aid may be distributed on a case-by-case basis until all aid has been distributed.
  • Priority for Financial Aid awards will go to registered campers, but campers are not required to register before applying for Financial Aid.

Tuition is $3825 per session.

  • Campers who attend both sessions receive a 10% discount on the total tuition amount.
  • Extra fees apply to both the College Credit Course and the Extended Experience Week. Financial Aid awards cannot be applied to either program.
    • In order to enroll in the College Credit Course and earn three college credits from Mary Baldwin University (transferable to other institutions) campers must pay the cost of tuition directly to MBU.
    • The Extended Experience Week costs an additional $900 per camper. This amount covers room and board, costs associated with 24/7 staffing needs, continued access to all shows playing at the Blackfriars Playhouse, and the super special (secret) field trips.

Indeed we do. Thanks to the Financial Aid Fund, partial tuition assistance is available to help ease the burden of tuition. Once a camper’s application has been accepted, they may apply for aid using the custom Financial Aid Application link contained in their acceptance email.

Financial Aid awards are not full scholarships.

  • We do what we can with financial aid, but it’s important to know that financial aid awards will not cover the full cost of tuition. 
    • Financial Aid awards can help with up to half the cost of tuition.
    • We are unable to provide travel subsidies.
  • We accept Financial Aid applications on a rolling basis and send out case-by-case award offers until all aid has been distributed.
  • Priority for Financial Aid awards will go to registered campers, but campers are not required to register before applying for Financial Aid.

The final deadline for financial aid is April 1.

We accept Financial Aid applications on a rolling basis up until the deadline and send out award offers in two waves: one in late December and another in early April.

Any remaining aid may be distributed on a case-by-case basis until all aid has been distributed.

The ASC Theatre Camp has two opportunities for campers to win full tuition scholarships to either session.

Campers can seek outside scholarship assistance from a variety of other sources. Check out the External Scholarships tab for information about external scholarships, along with some less traditional fundraising ideas.

If you are interested in sponsoring a camper by setting up a scholarship, please contact Director of Development Kelly Burdick at kelly.burdick@americanshakespearecenter.com, or consider making a donation to the American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp Scholarship Fund.

We accept all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express) as well as checks, money orders, and good ole cash (though I don’t recommend sending cash payments in the mail).

Please make checks to the American Shakespeare Center and mail to:

American Shakespeare Center
Attn: ASC Theatre Camp
20 S New Street, 4th Floor
Staunton, VA 24401

Accepted campers and their families have three registration options:

  1. Pay tuition in full at the time of registration. This includes the $150 nonrefundable deposit.
  2. Pay only the $150 nonrefundable deposit at the time of registration, and spread the remaining tuition balance over as many interest-free installments you need. The number of payments, amounts of each payment, and payment dates are entirely up to you, so long as tuition is paid in full by the session’s due date (see below).
  3. Exactly the same as Option #2, with an additional step: apply for Financial Aid either before or after registering. The remaining tuition (less the financial aid award) may be spread out over multiple custom payments.

 

Tuition must be paid in full by the session due date, which is the Monday two weeks before the session starts.

Session 1 Due Date: June 3, 2019
Session 2 Due Date: July 1, 2019

By default, all registered families with an outstanding tuition balance due will receive automatic payment reminders as the session due date draws closer. These emails will contain up-to-date account balance information and a link to the camper’s unique payment form.

ASC Refund Policy (as of January 9, 2018): The initial tuition deposit of $150 is non-refundable. If a camper withdraws more than 60 days from the start of camp, everything except that deposit is refundable. If a camper withdraws less than 60 days before the start of camp, 50% of tuition paid in will be refunded. If a camper withdraws 30 or fewer days before the start of camp, the ASC will not be able to provide a refund.

(Psssst – if you’re able, consider donating that paid tuition to our Financial Aid Fund and help make the dream of camp a reality for students everywhere.)

Camp is certainly the gift that keeps on giving, and we want to encourage everybody to give that gift.

Part of that gift includes the application process, which is not only great practice for filling out college applications but also creates an even playing field within the camper community.

Since all campers must apply and be accepted in order to attend camp (including our Sweepstakes winner), nobody can “buy their way in.”

So how do you surprise your camper with the best gift ever?

Easy! We can pre-approve your camper on the strength of a teacher recommendation. Pre-approved campers will receive a personal letter inviting them to apply and their official ASCTC nametag and lanyard all campers receive upon arrival – the perfect package to wrap up and put under the tree or on the gift pile.

Pre-approval does not guarantee acceptance or save your camper’s spot. Pre-approved campers will still need to fill out an application, get accepted, and then register in order to attend camp.

Contact Camp Director Lia Wallace about pre-approval for your camper today!

  1. Use the Sweepstakes Entry Form to put your name in for a chance to win a full tuition scholarship to the 2019 ASC Theatre Camp. The 2019 Sweepstakes opens Friday, March 15.
  2. Tune in to our Sweepstakes Selection drawing during Shakespeare’s Birthday Party on Sunday, April 28 to find out if you’re the lucky winner!

All eligible campers may enter or be entered for – friends, teachers, parents, and other family members may enter on behalf of a camper. However, everyone may only enter once – multiple nominations for the same camper will be deleted. Everybody gets one name in the pot and has the same chance of winning.

No, you do not have to apply to camp in order to enter the Sweepstakes – but if you win, you must then apply and be accepted in order to claim the scholarship. The Sweepstakes is not a way to get into camp without being accepted. If we deny the Sweepstakes winner’s application, we will choose a new winner from the remaining entries.

Registered campers may certainly enter the Sweepstakes to get the remainder of their tuition waived. Campers who are already paid in full are not eligible for the Sweepstakes.

Campers who registered with partial payment will not receive a refund of tuition already paid if they win.

get swept away.

The ASCTC 2019 Summer with Shakespeare Sweepstakes opens on FRIDAY, MARCH 15 (beware the Ides of March, indeed). Head on over to the Entry Form in order to put your name in the pot. Entries close at NOON (EST) on FRIDAY, APRIL 26. We will select the lucky winner at Shakespeare’s Birthday Party on SUNDAY, APRIL 28. May the odds be ever in your favor!

Enter Now

aBOUT THE summer with sHAKESPEARE sWEEPSTAKES

Not only did the ASC change my direction in life to the greatest it could be, but it also gave me this beautifully weird, dreamlike place with people that will walk with me, talk with me, and actually show me how to pursue the path of my happiness. My happiness isn’t just going into theatre and reading Shakespeare, it’s being comfortable and humbly proud with who I am in the world. When I first came to camp I was a socially inept, anxious, self-loathing terror that nobody wanted to be friends with. Three years later, I left camp this year being regarded as the “Cool Camp Dad”. I got to be there for those new campers who were just as anxious and confused as I was my first year, which was a defining moment in me accepting that I am growing up. Which has been weighing heavily in me this past year. Because of camp, and the people I have met there I no longer dread the future, doubt my worth, or believe that I am alone in this world. They may not be by me all the time, and we may never speak again, but I know who my friends are, and I know that I am loved. — Camper, 2018

Programs like the ASC Theatre Camp are transformative. And expensive.

Though the cost of the ASC Theatre Camp is significantly lower than that of the few other comparable programs (both across the country and around the world), it can still be prohibitive for many.

So a few years ago, we created the Summer with Shakespeare Sweepstakes, which we’re proud to continue today. The Sweepstakes is a chance to win a full tuition scholarship to a session of camp — for ANYBODY. Everyone can enter, and everyone has an equal chance to win. (Want to see how we choose the winner? Make sure to check out the previous winner selection videos at the bottom of this page).

That first year, Cat Moreschi (pictured above) was our winner. After her experience in the first session of ASCTC 2016, she wrote us to say:

I can’t even begin to explain how much attending camp has changed me. I learned so much over the course of the three weeks, met so many wonderful people, and had so much fun. Even now, two weeks later, I find myself wishing I was back at camp. I would have been more than happy to spend my entire summer there. … I can’t thank you enough for allowing me to have this experience. It is one I will never forget. —Cat Moreschi, winner of the 2016 Sweepstakes

Photo by Lindsey Walters.

 

We raise money year-round for the ASCTC Financial Aid Fund, and we are able to provide some tuition assistance. But we simply can’t make camp a reality for all the students who want, and need, and wish to come. At least, not yet.

The Sweepstakes was created for those potential campers. For those who will be bolstered and buoyed by camp, encouraged to take ownership of their words, their presence, their essential being – to push themselves to the limit, to encounter insurmountable challenges on day one and then surmount them on day twenty-one.  For those who will change and challenge their fellow campers, their directors and RDAs, and themselves. Because that’s what our campers do, that’s what camp does, and if price is the only thing standing in the way then by heaven, we’ll shove it over for at least one person, at least one camper, to have an experience they couldn’t otherwise.

2016S2H8
Campers during ASCTC 2016 rehearsing for the Session 2 Staged Reading Showcase of HENRY VIII.

 

This brings me to a larger point about why we have this Sweepstakes at all: If you can afford camp, please pay for it.

In order to provide the experience we provide, we require the time and effort of a lot of very dedicated people. We use resources like the Blackfriars Playhouse and the Mary Baldwin University campus. We hire a world-class artistic staff to direct, teach, and train our campers; alongside a top-notch administrative staff to bring those artistic ideas to life. We provide housing for the campers (with round-the-clock adult supervision) and access to a healthy variety of meal choices (other than gruel with a side of saltines).

These things cost money. The price tag of tuition isn’t about making money for the American Shakespeare Center — which, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is not legally permitted to make a profit. Tuition pays for the program, and that price tag is simply what it costs to run a program as exemplary, exceptional, and extraordinary as ours.

I want camp to be available to everybody. This Sweepstakes is one way of bringing camp to at least one person for whom attendance would otherwise be impossible. We all like to get something for free whenever we can – but please don’t enter the Sweepstakes just because it would be nice to get camp for free.

We need your support. If you can afford to support camp by paying tuition, then you can also give a camper who could never otherwise attend a better chance of winning.

previous winners

2018 – Jessica Shultz

2017 – Maren-Machel Ostlund

2016 – Cat Moreschi

Many organizations offer competitive, merit- and need-based scholarships for high school students seeking to enrich their lives through summer arts programs. Here are a few that we recommend checking out if you’re thinking about applying for Financial Aid.

Other Scholarship Opportunities

We have started a list of possible national and state scholarship opportunities below. If you discover a local or state scholarship opportunity that you would like to share with fellow campers, please send us the scholarship details and we will add it to the list. This list is for your reference only. We cannot guarantee the availability of any of these opportunities or that the ASC Theatre Camp qualifies for any funding prerequisite.

  • Educational Theatre Association Scholarships– students must be inducted Thespians, and/or compete in the Thespian Scholarship Auditions at the International Thespian Festival.
  • The Anthony Quinn Foundation supports high school students’ extracurricular study of the visual arts and design, performing arts, media arts, and/or literary arts. Scholarship amounts range from $1,000 to $2,500.
    • Scholarships may be used for a recognized pre-college, summer, or afterschool arts education program but may not be used for either secondary school or college tuition.
    • To be eligible, applicants must be a young adult in high school who demonstrates exceptional talent, dedication, and a strong commitment to personal artistic growth who will benefit from financial support.
ASCTC Fundraising Fun: Creative Ways to Meet Your Goals

Scholarships are well and good, but you don’t need one to raise money for camp yourself. This list of fun and creative fundraising ideas can help you meet your tuition fundraising goals.  If you have other ideas to add to this list, please share them with us.  Other campers have seen great success by using some of the ideas below.

  • Host a spaghetti dinner or bake sale at your school or church
  • Host a sonnet reading event or talent show
  • Produce a one-act play
  • Sell raffle tickets for a prize donated by a local business or community group
  • Collect money for writing poems or creating greeting cards for family and friends
  • Offer to help your neighbors with lawn care, recycling, or pet-sitting
  • Partner with a local grocery store and offer to bag groceries in exchange for keeping tips
  • Use your creative skills to sell hand-made crafts and art
  • Host a yard or garage sale with your neighbors
  • Offer to do errands or odd-jobs for people in your community that need assistance
  • Write the numbers 1-85 on 85 envelopes. If every person that you give an envelope to donates the amount written on their envelope, you will collect enough funds to cover the cost of tuition.

We have also made it possible for your friends and family to contribute to your camp tuition through our online form, Give the Gift of Camp. You can share this link with your family and friends by email and other social media. The form does not require a set payment amount, so friends and family can contribute as much as they like.

Other resources that you may find in your community include grants and arts scholarships. We suggest contacting your local arts council, community foundation, city council, school system, and state commission for the arts to inquire about funding sources in your region.

We hope that these ideas jump-start many creative fundraising efforts!