2025-2026 Academy applications are now open! Applications are due Wednesday, June 25th, 2025.

CharacterWorks Academy is a year-long program, September-June, offering application/audition-only theater arts classes that introduce more focused curriculum and training that builds throughout the year. These classes are designed to offer students additional opportunities with material that CharacterWorks often does not get to produce on the main stage, as well as intense focus on acting techniques and processes. Each summer, students have a chance to apply online and gain acceptance before fall class registration begins. 

Enrollment in the 2025-2026 Academy classes will include participation in all three class sessions (fall, winter, spring) and an extended performance at the Academy Festival at the end of the spring session. Payment is due at the beginning of each class session, and the student commitment is for all three sessions. Those enrolled in Academy are eligible to audition for one of the main stage productions each session. 

Academy classes meet once a week during the three sessions but also require a few extra rehearsals in May. Students are expected to commit to all classes, as well as extra time outside of class memorizing material. There will be 2-3 REQUIRED tech week rehearsals May 25-28 for each class, and a performance at our Academy Festival, May 29-31, 2026.

Note: Academy classes are incredibly competitive. Each year CWorks offers new classes for varied training opportunities, and the number of spots available in each class changes based on material and facilities. Participation in previous Academy classes does not guarantee acceptance into this year's Academy classes. Although spots in class will not be available to every applicant, students who are unable to participate in Academy are encouraged to register for an 8-week class in the fall!

Junior Academy: Musical Theater returns to give young actors a yearlong opportunity for focused growth and training in musical theater performance. In the first session, students will be introduced to essential acting, vocal, and audition techniques through improv, theater games, vocal exercises, and auditions for a junior musical production or broadway musical revue. Sessions two and three will challenge the students to apply what they are learning in an extended musical showcase at the Academy Festival. 

To apply for Junior Academy: Musical Theater, students should fill out an academy application form, and submit a video audition of the student performing a 1 minute monologue, as well as a video of the student performing 30-60 seconds of a musical theater song of their choice. Students are encouraged to use one of the monologues provided below. Applications are due Wednesday, June 25, 2025 at midnight.

The cost for Academy is $350 per session ($275 covers class tuition, plus an additional $75 fee per session for performance rights, artistic/tech team, performance space).

Instructor: TBD

Acting Academy returns to give actors a yearlong opportunity for focused growth and training in acting. In the fall, students will be challenged to grow in their creativity and acting skills through physical and vocal exercises, improv games, and acting activities. The winter and spring sessions will challenge students to apply what they are learning to rehearsing a play to be performed at the Academy Festival. 

To apply for Acting Academy students should fill out an academy application form and submit a video audition of the student performing a 1-minute monologue. Students are encouraged to use one of the monologues provided below. Applications are due Wednesday, June 25, 2025 at midnight.

The cost for Academy is $350 per session ($275 covers class tuition, plus an additional $75 fee per session for performance rights, artistic/tech team, performance space).

Instructor: Ashley Love

Film Academy will be producing a rom-com musical written by a CharacterWorks student. Students will learn about and get to experience all aspects of the production process, giving them a wide view of the film production business. Filming equipment is provided, but students will be art directing the production using props and sets they create or are able to find.

Since this class will film on location most nights, classes will not always be held at Kingsway. Students and parents will be provided with a schedule before each of the three sessions during the year.

To apply for Film Academy, students need to submit an academy application form that includes a theater resume, a film resume if available, and answers to essay questions outlining why the student is interested in Film Academy. The actors for this film will be chosen from students within the class, so a video monologue audition will be required for any student wishing to act in the film (both boys and girls will be cast in this series). If a student does not wish to be considered for the cast of the film, a video monologue audition is not required. 

Applications are due Wednesday, June 25, 2025 at midnight.  The cost for Academy is $350 per session ($275 covers class tuition, plus an additional $75 fee per session for performance rights, artistic/tech team, performance space).

Instructors: Blair Keeley & Ben Crain

Advanced Acting Academy Drama: Twelve Angry Jurors will help students learn the acting process, from how to tackle a role to scene analysis, through acting exercises, theater games, and partner work. Students will spend time learning how to apply these techniques while rehearsing the play Twelve Angry Jurors, full of rich characters and a compelling story. Students will be challenged to apply the acting techniques they are learning in their performance of Twelve Angry Jurors at the Academy Festival. 

To apply for Advanced Acting Academy Drama: Twelve Angry Jurors, students should fill out an academy application form and submit a video audition of the student performing a 1-minute dramatic monologue. Students are encouraged to use a monologue from the monologues provided below. Applications are due Wednesday, June 25 at midnight. 

The cost for Academy is $350 per session ($275 class tuition, plus an additional $75 fee per session for performance rights, artistic/tech team, performance space).

Instructor: Ashley Love

About Twelve Angry Jurors: On a hot summer day after a long trial, a jury must decide whether a 19-year-old man is guilty of murdering his father. The jury votes 11-1 that the man is guilty of the crime, but laws in the United States require a unanimous vote by all 12 jurors in order to pass judgment. Tempers flare as the eleven jurors try their best to convince the 1 dissenter to come around to their side. As the evidence is re-examined, however, new uncertainties come to light, forcing everyone to truly question if there is in fact some measure of "reasonable doubt". Twelve Angry Men is a heightened courtroom thriller that puts you on the edge of your seat while powerfully exploring what it means to live in a democracy.

Advance Acting Academy Comedy: Arsenic & Old Lace will help students learn techniques to develop truthful characters while finding the comedy in a script through acting exercises, script analysis, theater games and partner work. Students will spend time learning how to apply these techniques while rehearsing and performing Arsenic & Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring, a dark comedy full of crazy characters and unexpected scenes. 

To apply for Advanced Acting Academy Comedy: Arsenic & Old Lace, students should fill out an academy application form and submit a video audition of the student performing a 1-minute comedic monologue. Students are encouraged to use a monologue from the monologues provided below. Applications are due Wednesday, June 25 at midnight. Students must be 15 by October 31, 2025, to be eligible to audition for this class.

The cost for Academy is $350 per session ($275 class tuition, plus an additional $75 fee per session for performance rights, artistic/tech team, performance space).

Instructor: Becky McNamee

About Arsenic & Old Lace: Drama critic Mortimer Brewster’s engagement announcement is upended when he discovers a corpse in his elderly aunts’ window seat. Mortimer rushes to tell Abby and Martha before they stumble upon the body themselves, only to learn that the two old women aren’t just aware of the dead man in their parlor, they killed him! Between his aunts’ penchant for poisoning wine, a brother who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, and another brother using plastic surgery to hide from the police—not to mention Mortimer’s own hesitancy about marriage—it’ll be a miracle if Mortimer makes it to his wedding. Arsenic and Old Lace is a classic comedy about the only thing more deadly than poison: family.