Garek Theatre Camp 2025

Published: 28 Aug 2025

Our invigorated new summer camp brought together young people from all over London!

Garek Theatre Camp (formerly Summer Stage) at The Other Palace is our low-cost, inclusive, Summer theatre camp for young people aged 13-17 (or up to 24 if D/deaf or disabled) and took place in August.

The camp brings young people together from all over London with the aim of creating a short piece of original theatre – learning techniques in drama, dance, and music along the way. Its primary goal is to give them time to develop their performing arts skills (whether they have a lot of experience or have never participated before) while also providing them the opportunity to connect with new people and develop important life skills such as confidence and teamwork.

Responding to feedback, this year the camp offered two versions: a one-week programme tailored for those with little experience in performing arts who would benefit from a shorter, more supported pace, and a two-week camp designed for aspiring performers eager to dive deeper.

Participants explored drama, dance and music while devising their own original pieces of theatre. Highlights included workshops with industry professionals, an insight into backstage careers, a special trip to see Hamilton and an opportunity to perform the piece they created at The Other Palace to friends and family.

100% of participants reported increased confidence performing in front of others.

76% felt more confident sharing their ideas, and 70% said making new friends had been a highlight of the camp.

100% of participants said they had learnt skills such as building confidence, making friends, working as a team, creating and performing (through acting, dance and song), expressing ideas creatively, telling stories, and understanding different roles in theatre.

The young people who attended gave us some amazing feedback:

‘My highlight has been how freely I can express myself, bonding and making friends’

‘My highlight has been building a strong community and developing my acting skills’

‘What I will take into the future is the belief that all young people are creative’

🎥 Watch our film of the full three-week camp right here:

We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who helped make our new summer camp a reality for young people.

A very special thank you goes to The Garek Trust. Their incredible generosity and support were essential in making this exciting new camp possible.

We are also grateful to RELX for their additional funding and to Barings for their generous in-kind donation. Their contributions, along with all the other funders and donors who support the work of Go Live, make a real difference in the lives of young people.

Finally, thank you to The Other Palace for their incredible support and hospitality in hosting our camp at their studio.