Summer Improv Camps in Portland
Give Your Kids the Gift of
Working With Industry Professionals
Welcome to the only summer improv camps in Portland, Oregon featuring:
✅ Only professional actors, improvisers, and educators teaching your kids
✅ Only teachers with decades of teaching experience to lead your children
✅ SMALL camp sizes to maximize your child’s engagement, learning, and fun
Click below to register by may 15th
JULY MIDDLE SCHOOL camp runs 7/6 - 7/10
Our JULY camp for high schoolers runs 7/6 - 7/10
AUGUST MIDDLE SCHOOL camp runs 8/10 - 8/14
Say no to huge camp crowds where your kid gets lost with 20-40 others. Stop leaving your kids in the care of teenage “teachers” or those without decades of teaching, training and professional experience.
Instead, we invite you to treat your child to one of our two improv camps in Portland this summer! Each camp is limited to just 10 participants to foster a cozy, tight-knit community and to ensure that your child gets plenty of attention and teaching time.
We welcome ALL races, religions, orientations, and abilities in our studio. Whether your kiddo is an extroverted performer who’s eyeing a career in acting or an introverted thinker who’s a quiet creative, they’ll feel right at home. All of our facilities are ADA accessible.
What, Where, & When
Camps run the same week of July. Morning camp will be for middle schoolers; the afternoon workshop will be for high schoolers.
Camp Improv for Middle Schoolers (ages 10-14): July 6th-10th & August 10th-14th, 10am-1pm
Improv Workshop for High Schoolers (ages 15-19): July 6th-10th, 2-5pm
All camps will be held at our studio in the Raleigh Hills neighborhood of SW Portland, right next to the New Seasons Market on SW Scholls Ferry Road. We’re very close to Beaverton, Garden Home, Hillsdale, Multnomah Village & Tigard; reasonably close to Aloha, Tualatin, and Lake Oswego.
What Will We Teach?
Both half-day summer improv camps introduce participants to age-appropriate improv games & scene work. We’ll focus on activities that spark creativity, teamwork, and quick thinking. Through guided play, participants will learn how to build stories together, listen and respond to one another, think on their feet, and express themselves creatively and with confidence. Each session is packed with high-energy games, collaborative challenges, and plenty of laughter. The focus isn’t on “being funny,” but on learning valuable life skills like communication, adaptability, and trust while having an absolute blast.
They’ll show up as strangers, but they’ll leave as good friends.
Click below to register by may 15th
Our JULY camp runs 7/6 - 7/10
Our JULY camp for high schoolers runs 7/6 - 7/10
Our AUGUST camp runs 8/10 - 8/14
Meet Our Instructors
David Koff, Change Through Play’s Founder, will anchor our Summer Improv Workshop for high-schoolers. David is a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and has been acting & improvising professionally since 1993. He continues to appear in commercials and films. He originally trained and studied improvisation with The Groundlings in Los Angeles, before studying under the best improv teachers in Los Angeles and Portland including Stan Wells, Phyllis Katz, Bill Steinkellner, and Tom Johnson. He’s also learned techniques pioneered by some of the finest masters of “applied” improvisation. He’s become well known for combining approaches from the worlds of theater, psychology, and behavioral science in his classes. David opened the Change Through Play Improv & Training Center in mid-2019, just in time for the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. 😂
Lisa Merlo (she/her) first got started in theater in the California Bay Area with the Children's Theater Workshop. She’s been a lifelong student of theater and performance, playing on local stages throughout PDX with the Impro Players and with Change Through Play's house teams. She began teaching at Canby Highschool in 2016 and currently directs the Sellwood Middle School improv troupe with Rogue Pack Collective. Lisa continues to hone her craft and continues to train with David Koff, the Founder of Change Through Play, in his advanced improv workshop.
