Choose Your Improv Era

Encore Stage Team • January 3, 2025

Join us for all the laughs in our improv and comedy programs. Perfect your comedy skills and learn the secret ingredient… timing!

July 14-18, 2025: Summer Stooges (Ages 9-12)

Do you love to laugh? Join Encore for a hilarious journey as we explore physical comedy, clowning, and more. You’ll be sure to leave any audience in stitches with the comedic antics you’ll learn in this side-splitting session. Camp concludes with a Final Share for family on the last day of camp.

Time: 10:00 am-4:00 pm | Extended hours available 8:30am – 10:00am, 4:00pm – 5:30pm

Location: Kenmore Middle School (200 S Carlin Springs Rd, Arlington, VA 22204)*

Price: $425 Early Bird Deal | $450 After January 31st

“[My student] told us all about story development. She loved the opportunity to be creative!.” – Parent Review

July 21-25, 2025: Commedia Dell’Arte and Mask Work (Ages 9-12)

Grab your Il Dottore mask and learn about the tradition of Commedia dell’Arte, the world’s oldest type of professional theatre! Actors will gain an appreciation for the stock comedic characters that have influenced beloved figures through the ages, work on exaggerated physical movements, and develop an understanding of the history of comedic theatre. Camp concludes with a Final Share for family on the last day.

Time: 10:00 am-4:00 pm | Extended hours available 8:30am – 10:00am, 4:00pm – 5:30pm

Location: Kenmore Middle School (200 S Carlin Springs Rd, Arlington, VA 22204)*

Price: $425 Early Bird Deal | $450 After January 31st

August 4-8, 2025: Scene Stealers (Ages 9-12)

Are you ready for hilarity, silliness, and a whole new style of theatre? Yes, and? The fun doesn’t stop during this week-long improvised comedy intensive. Develop characters, set the scene, and write your own story…all on the spot. Whether you’re completely new to improv or a seasoned comedy lover, every camp comes to life in brand new ways!

Time: 10:00 am-4:00 pm | Extended hours available 8:30am – 10:00am

Location: Clarendon Presbyterian Church (1305 N Jackson St, Arlington, VA 22201)

Price: $425 Early Bird Deal | $450 After January 31st

“[My student’s favorite part was] all the improv games and coming up with skits. They love the chance to be creative and lean into their tween weirdness with other creative tween weirdos.” – Parent Review

August 18-22 2025: Live From Encore! (Ages 9-12)

Close out your summer with a load of laughs and a round of applause! Team up with your fellow campers to create hilarious sketches using long-form improvisation techniques you’ll learn from our professional teaching artists. Remind me: whose line is it, anyway?

Time: 10:00 am-4:00 pm | Extended hours available 8:30am – 10:00am, 4:00pm – 5:30pm

Location: Clarendon Presbyterian Church (1305 N Jackson St, Arlington, VA 22201)

Price: $425 Early Bird Deal | $450 After January 31st

June 17-June 28, 2025: Stage Door The Great Cellphone Catastrophe (Ages 12-15)

This delightfully absurd play introduces us to some likable, goofy high school students who must live — briefly at least — without their omnipresent cell phones.Nerd Stevie is frustrated that Stella, the girl of his dreams and the leader of the Cool Kids, won’t acknowledge him, so he devises a way to disable all the cell phones in town. With no phones, everyone must — gasp! — talk to one another. Utilizing projections, sound effects, and video, a funny and randomly weird adventure ensues. The Cool Kids try to solve the cell phone mystery, while Stevie and the other Nerds cluelessly try to prevent them from learning the truth. Along the way they encounter wild animals at a suburban park, hostile squirrels, a trio of Fosse dancers, singing Puritans, touchy beat poets, and a chicken on the lam. No Camp July 4.

Time: 10:00 am-4:00 pm | Extended hours available 8:30am – 10:00am, 4:00pm – 5:30pm

Location: Kenmore Middle School (200 S Carlin Springs Rd, Arlington, VA 22204)*

Price: $770 Early Bird Deal | $815 After January 31st

“[My student loved] learning all about tech/working backstage with the team.” – Parent Review

July 21-August 1, 2025: Stage Door The Dumbest Play Ever (Ages 12-15)

Wow! This has to be the worst title ever for a play, right? Unless… maybe not? In a series of silly scenes that will have us laughing at the “dumbness” in everything, the real question in the end is about what matters most. And while we all can do dumb, goofy things at times (maybe a lot of the time!), we all offer something of value as well. Despite its name, this play smartly poses pertinent questions like: Is Artificial Intelligence smart or dumb? Is a tri-fork an amazing brainstorm or just another silly idea? And why are really good answers on a quiz show somehow wrong? Perhaps Mabel’s Meditative Yoga Class is what we need to just let it all go and not worry whether any of this is smart or dumb or silly or weird, because it’s definitely all of the above! Demonstrating that we can all see a bit of ourselves in this play, the opening scene has the playwright himself as a character making fun of his own dumb ideas — this very play possibly being one of them! Players and the audience join in the fun with these ditzy characters through eight more scenes with cast sizes ranging from 2 to 8. No one will walk away from this show without feeling both a little bit ‘dummer’ and a lot more smarter!

Time: 10:00 am-4:00 pm | Extended hours available 8:30am – 10:00am, 4:00pm – 5:30pm

Location: Kenmore Middle School (200 S Carlin Springs Rd, Arlington, VA 22204)*

Price: $850 Early Bird Deal | $900 After January 31st

August 11-22, 2025: Usher: A Totally Teen Comedy (Ages 12-15)

The works of Edgar Allan Poe are bone-chilling, dark, depressing — nevermore, quoth the raven! This skillful adaptation takes a grand mix of Poe’s writing and characters and weaves them together into a teen-savvy comedy loosely based on “The Fall of the House of Usher” but with more laughs and a much brighter ending. After the bus breaks down on a dark and stormy night, a bunch of high school students on a field trip are forced to spend the night in the spooky house of Usher. But they’re not alone! The spirits of Usher ancestors haunt the halls, cursed to stay trapped in the house forever, unless someone helps the last surviving Usher find the will to truly live life. Along with a healthy dose of entertaining teen drama, Usher touches on some weighty issues that haunt the nightmares of most teens — isolation, loneliness, suicide, and peer pressure. But lighten up, it’s a comedy after all! With characters drawn from classics such as “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Tell Tale Heart,” “Annabel Lee,” and some lesser-known works, there are countless winks, nudges, and nods to the Master of Horror. The House of Usher doesn’t fall at the end in this show, but Usher will bring down yours!

Time: 10:00 am-4:00 pm | Extended hours available 9:00am – 10:00am, 4:00pm – 5:30pm

Location: Encore @ St. Andrews (4000 Lorcom Ln Arlington, VA 22207)

Price: $850 Early Bird Deal | $900 After January 31st

We look forward to having a load of laughs this summer! Don’t miss out!

The post Choose Your Improv Era appeared first on Encore Stage & Studio.

By Encore Stage Team May 21, 2026
Today we are highlighting our stage manager of The Addams Family , Josie Funk , who is also an Encore alum! You may remember them as our stage manager for last year’s summer musical, Footloose . Josie is currently a college student at VCU Arts, studying stage management. Read along to learn more abo
By Encore Stage Team April 16, 2026
The last director we had the privilege of speaking to in our Directors Assemble! series, is Abigial H.! She’s directing The Edge of Noir by Gary Peterson and has been with Encore Stage & Studio for five years! Last year, you may have seen Abigail direct A Murdered Mystery by Karl Garner in our first
By Encore Stage Team April 10, 2026
The next director we are featuring on Directors Assemble! Is Imogen B.! They’re directing The Knave of Hearts and have taken on several roles at Encore between cast and crew. We are excited to see her shine in her directorial debut! Stick around to learn more about all things Student Directed One-Ac
By Encore Stage Team April 7, 2026
Next up on the Directors Assemble! interview series, highlighting the student directors of Encore Stage & Studio’s 2026 Student Directed One-Act Plays, we have Ajan G. This will be Ajan’s 20th show with Encore, and we are excited to share with you all the details of the production he will be directi
By Encore Stage Team April 2, 2026
Next up on the Directors Assemble! series, we have Zach R ., director of Spy School by D. M. Larson. This is his second year as a student director with Encore Stage & Studio, and we are excited to welcome him back. Before directing, he played many roles at Encore, including but not limited to: Fritz
By Encore Stage Team March 27, 2026
Next up on our “Directors Assemble” series, Jazz B. takes center stage. After spending years at Encore Stage & Studio both on stage and behind the scenes, Jazz makes zis debut as a director with Jackie and the Potato Stalk by D. M. Larson. We got to interview zim and get insight on a new take on a c
By Encore Stage Team March 18, 2026
Today, we’re thrilled to launch our new “Directors Assemble” series on the Front Row Blog with a spotlight on Divya K. , director of Excuse Me by Amir Razavi. Divya has been a familiar face at Encore in so many roles, from cast member and backstage crew to front of house, stage management, and even
By Encore Stage Team February 28, 2026
From the moment she first experienced the magic of Annie on Broadway, Madaline knew she wanted to be part of a world where stories move people and possibility feels tangible. Her journey has taken her from the electric wings of Macbeth to performing original work at the Maryland Renaissance Festival
By Encore Stage Team February 27, 2026
As we celebrate Black History Month on the Encore blog, we’d like to introduce Aaliyah Dade! Aaliyah, how are you involved at Encore Stage & Studio? I am a teaching artist and Flip The Script actor! What was the first show you ever did, what do you remember most about it? The first show I ever did w
By Encore Stage Team February 20, 2026
There are moments in every artist’s journey when the curtain lifts and something inside clicks into place. For Curtis, that spark came through powerful storytelling, meaningful representation, and the electric glow of stage lights that turned strangers into family. We continue to celebrate Black His
Show More