Overview
The Theatre program at the California State Summer School for the Arts offers intensive and challenging theater training for students who are serious about exploring the craft of acting and the possibilities of entertainment and storytelling in a rapidly changing artistic landscape.
Students will be working with professionals from all corners of the industry. The core classes will be: Acting Studio (with multiple directors), Voice & Speech (using your voice, diction, control, accents & dialects), Stage Combat & Movement, Improvisation (long form and short form), and Audition Technique (college prep, professional stage, on-camera reads, and self-tapes).
Students will be able to choose electives from the following classes: Advanced Comedy Improv, Puppetry, Musical Theater, Musical Theater Movement, Voice Over, Shakespeare & classics (pre-1920), as well as a few acting masterclasses run by industry professionals. We will also be hosting a number of actors, writers, directors, and designers to talk to and work with our students. Visiting artists include recurring cast members from Dropout and Smosh, Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists podcast LIVE, Shirley Chen (actor), Rachel Goldberg (Director) and others!
Classes will have four blocks during the day: two classes before lunch and two after. Evenings are reserved for performances, talks, masterclasses, and rehearsal time. Saturdays will have a slight adjustment.
Students currently enrolled in grades 8 through 12 are eligible to apply. (CSSSA is open to students entering grades 9, 10, 11 or 12 next fall 2026. CSSSA is also open to students who are graduating from high school in the spring of 2026. You can still do the program the summer after graduation.)
More information about curriculum and faculty for the 2026 session will be announced soon – stay tuned!
Theater Curriculum
Acting Studio
Students will learn and refine the building blocks of good performance with monologues (both on stage and on camera), scene work, and various exercises to develop the actors’ instruments: voice, body, and mind.
Voice & Speech
Students will learn how to best use their voice by learning how to use volume, diction, resonance, and intention to present various texts to their full effectiveness.
Stage Combat & Movement
Movement classes will cover various skills and techniques including stage combat (both armed and unarmed), stylistic and period movement, physical comedy, and other techniques.
Audition Technique
Students will learn how to put their best foot forward in any type of audition: Theatre, Film, Television, Commercial, and College and prep programs. The material will range from memorized monologues to prepared sides, to cold reads, to improvisation. Students will leave the summer course with at least two contrasting monologues that fit them as an actor and the skills needed to be memorable to casting.
Improvisation
All actors need to live in the moment and understand spontaneity, and the Improvisation class will be vital in every aspect of performance from comedy to drama and from feature films to commercials.
Program Instructors
Jeremy Guskin
DEPARTMENT CHAIR
Jeremy Guskin brings a wealth of experience as a theater professional and educator. He was born and raised in New York City, has two Masters degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia. Jeremy has been an arts educator for over 20 years at LACHSA (the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts), Burbank High School, and currently runs the Theatre Department at AGLA (Aveson Global Leadership Academy). He was also the co-creator and star of an educational program entitled Shakesperience, which has both educated and entertained more than 100,000 students across Southern California. He has also been a steadily working actor for over 25 years with credits that include Just Add Magic, Henry Danger/Dangerforce, Young Sheldon, The Rookie, Alias, Art School Confidential, and many others.
Susan Edwards Martin
Faculty
Susan Edwards Martin is a Broadway powerhouse whose career spans stage, TV, voice-over, and concert stages across the country! She originated the iconic role on Broadway of Lady Blues, the torch singer, in the Tony Award winning Torch Song Trilogy and is a two-time BroadwayWorld Award winner who knows exactly what it takes to shine. You’ll hear her as a lead detective in the soon-to-be-released psychological live-action thriller INNATE on Hulu and she is the voice of Master Dohye in the anime film Exorcism Chronicles, and as Dr. Molly on Bing! on Prime Video—plus she’s a sought-after vocal coach who helps performers find their true voice. Her CDs You’ve Gotta Have Heart and Simply Susan, Reimagined! are streaming on all platforms.
Amanda Tepe
Faculty
Amanda Tepe is an accomplished theatre educator, director, and professional actor whose career spans more than two decades across stage, television, and film. With over 35 on-screen credits, she is recognized for her versatility and commanding on-screen presence. In addition to her work as a performer, she is a respected director and mentor known for training emerging artists with industry-level rigor and artistic excellence. Amanda’s work is driven by a commitment to bold storytelling, inclusive casting, and preparing the next generation of performers for professional success.
Michelle Finston
Faculty
Michelle Finston is a director, puppeteer, actor, builder, singer, and international performing artist. As an alumni of CSSSA back in…some time ago Michelle is thrilled to come back as a teaching artist! Training: The Eugene O’Neill National Puppetry Conference, Sesame Street Workshop, and Sandglass Institute. She has worked with companies such as Les Sage Fous, Puppet Showplace Theater, and The Chicago International Puppet Festival. Michelle’s current show in development, Who Loves You More than Me has been workshopped at The Jim Henson Carriage House and Stitching Hour in Los Angeles. Credits: LaMama Puppet Slam NY, The Lovers (25th Puppetry Conference Celebration), Puppetry Direction of The Long Christmas Ride Home (METG Winner), and Kultar in Kultar’s Mime (Int’l Tour). They have performed at National Puppetry Festival Slams as well as led professional puppetry workshops at Emerson College, New England Center for Circus Arts, and the National Puppetry Festival in Swarthmore and Maryland. Michelle enjoys spontaneously singing/aerial arts and is a trauma informed teaching artist, improviser, and completed the NYC marathon.
Victoria Temez
Faculty
Victoria Tamez is a bicoastal actor, singer, dancer, and teaching artist. She is currently the 1st Year Acting teacher at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Past theatre credits include: Danielle (Language of Angles), Hermione (The Winter’s Tale), Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Chloë (Arcadia), and others. She believes that quality theatre education should be accessible to everyone and that the arts have the ability to be an agent for positive social change. Victoria is a graduate of the LACHSA Theatre Department; she also holds both a BFA in Dramatic Arts and an MA in Arts Management & Entrepreneurship from The College of Performing Arts at The New School in New York City.
Erika Godwin
Faculty
Originally from Seattle, Erika moved to LA many years ago, after picking up a degree in Theatre from Western Washington University. She hit the ground running, booking her first national commercial and joining SAG in the first year. Since then, she has steadily worked theatrically, commercially, and on the stage (her first love). She comes to CSSSA with years of experience as an actor, commercial agent, headshot coach, and audition coach.
Tuffet Schmelzle
Faculty
Tuffet Schmelze, the Dialect Geek, is a Los Angeles based actor, voice over artist, dialect coach and proud LACHSA Theatre Teacher of 12 years. Subjects taught Dialects, Advanced Acting, the Business of Acting, Beginning Improv, Intro to Theatre and Theatre History. Her teaching style is fun, upbeat and empowering. She received her B.A. from Loyola University Chicago and currently holds both a Theatre Single Subject and CTE Arts, Media & Entertainment Teaching credential. Directing credits: The 39 Steps, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and PUFFS! Dialect Clients Include: Apple TV, Universal Cable Productions, Center Theatre Group, La Mirada Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, Rubicon Theatre, Coachella Valley Rep, Falcon Theatre, Theatre @ Boston Court, Antaeus Theatre Company, A Noise Within, Ensemble Studio Theatre LA, Open Fist Theatre, East West Players, Circle X Theatre, Celebration Theatre, Reprise Theatre at UCLA and Son of Semele.
Alex Holmes
Faculty
Alex Holmes has been the Theatre Director at Saint Monica Preparatory for the last five years. He has obtained his B.A. in theatre from Southwest Minnesota State University and received his M.F.A. in performance from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He also obtained his single-subject teaching credential in theatre through CSU East Bay. Alex’s experience in theatre goes back to when he was 10 years old and performed in his very first musical. Since then, he has traveled the country performing in plays and musicals, new and old, from Los Angeles to New York and everywhere in between.
