The Garfield Center has announced the 2026 Playmakers Director and the start date for open registration. Playmakers is the GCA’s well-loved and successful theatrecraft and acting camp for young aspiring performers ages 8 through 15. The 2026 camp begins July 6th and ends with its performance weekend on July 31, August 1 and 2.
Registration begins online only at 8 AM on Monday, March 9th. Registration should be done at https://www.garfieldcenter.org/camps/. A registration button will appear that morning on that webpage at 8 AM, so registration will not be available prior to the moment it opens.
The 2026 Playmakers production title has not yet been selected. Once a title is selected, an announcement will be posted on the Garfield Center’s Facebook page.
Returning as this summer’s Playmakers Director is 2024-2025 Maryland Teacher of the Year Finalist and Kent County Middle School teacher Kaitlyn Wright. This will be Kaitlyn’s 3rd summer with the Playmakers program. Kaitlyn brings over a decade of experience in education. She earned her Bachelor's degree in English at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA, and her Masters in Educational Leadership and Administration at Salisbury University. Over the years in the classroom, she has infused her ELA curriculum with the study of drama, inviting her middle and high school students to perform and explore works spanning various genres including titles such as the science-fiction teleplay “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” Shakespeare's tragedy “Romeo and Juliet,” and H.G. Well's radio classic “The War of the Worlds.” She directed her first Middle School production “The Big Bad Musical” at Salisbury Middle School in 2017 and was very proud to direct Kent County Middle School's productions of “A Christmas Carol,” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Alice in Wonderland.” She is looking forward to returning to Playmakers this summer!
To more reasonably cover costs for the program, the Garfield Center has slightly raised fees this year. The fee for participants age 8 to 11 is $450.00 per enrollee, and the fee for participants age 12 to 15 is $500.00 per enrollee. Monday through Friday camp days start at 9:00 AM, with child drop-off beginning at 8:30 AM, and each camp day ends at 2:30 PM with child pick-up lasting until 3:00 PM. There will likely be a short day
on Friday, July 31st in preparation for that evening’s opening night performance starting at 7 PM. The performance weekend will also feature a Saturday night performance at 7 PM and a Sunday matinee performance at 2 PM.
Playmakers registration slots fill up quickly, so prospective participants and their parents should register as soon after registration opens as possible to ensure a spot in the camp.
