Spotlight Academy Solothurn: English Musical Theatre Camp for Teens in Switzerland
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
This July, LevelUp English brings its Spotlight Academy to Solothurn — a residential English musical theatre camp for teenagers aged 13 to 16, running from 12 to 17 July 2026 at the Swiss Youth Hostel in the baroque heart of one of Switzerland's most storied cities.
The Spotlight Academy is LevelUp's invitation to the young, bold, and ambitious — the born performers, and the ones who don't know it yet. It's a holiday camp for the superstars, a training ground for the artists. It's a week of creation and inspiration, and it's a call to the stage. In Solothurn, from 12 to 17 July 2026, we invite teenagers from across Switzerland — from Bern, Basel, Aarau, Olten, and beyond — to join us and find their place in the Spotlight.
What is Spotlight Academy Solothurn?
Spotlight Academy is LevelUp English's residential performing arts summer camp for teenagers aged 13 to 16, running from 12 to 17 July 2026 at the Swiss Youth Hostel in Solothurn. This is a musical theatre camp: five days of workshops, rehearsals, creative chaos, and collaboration, culminating in a final performance showcase that brings the whole week together.
It takes place entirely in English. Not because language is the point — but because at Spotlight Academy, English is simply the world the performers live in for the week. And it turns out that when you're deep in a scene, working out a dance sequence, or arguing about your character's motivation, you forget entirely that you're doing it in another language. This is, of course, the whole idea.
What Does the Musical Theatre Camp Week Look Like?
The programme is built around making something real — a performance that exists by the end of the week because everyone in the room worked together to create it.
Musical theatre workshops sit at the heart of the week. In the mornings, participants work together on voice, character, storytelling, and ensemble work. The LevelUp approach is gamified: improvisation sessions that build instinct and spontaneity, theatre exercises that challenge comfort zones, break down barriers between genres, and develop the ability to respond, adapt, and stay present in a scene. Stage skills and acting technique, creative costume design, and scene-creation challenges are woven through the week. The morning workshops are designed for creation, and they culminate in the Spotlight Academy Awards Ceremony — a final showcase to which parents are warmly invited at the end of the week.
All of it is led by LevelUp's trainers: creative professionals, native English speakers, and experienced performers who bring genuine craft to everything they do. These are not gap-year volunteers working from a manual. They are directors, actors, dancers, and storytellers — people who have spent their careers doing this, and who know how to bring out what's already in a young performer.
The week builds to the Final Performance Showcase — the moment when everything comes together. Every participant takes the stage. Every participant has something to show. It is, without exception, the moment that parents don't forget.
Why Performing Arts? What a Musical Theatre Camp Actually Builds
The skills built in a week of musical theatre are not confined to the stage. They are life skills — and some of the most valuable ones a young person can develop.
Performing arts build confidence in a way that is uniquely hard to manufacture anywhere else. Standing up in front of an audience — delivering a line, a song, a scene — requires a particular kind of courage. And when a young person does it, and finds out they were capable of it, something shifts. That shift doesn't stay on stage. It walks into classrooms, social situations, and every room where someone needs to speak and be heard.
They build teamwork in the most demanding possible way. A musical theatre production cannot be carried by one person. Every performer depends on the others — on timing, on listening, on generosity. Teenagers who spend a week making something together, navigating creative disagreements, covering for each other's nerves, and pulling a final show into existence learn something about collaboration that no team-building exercise can replicate.
They unlock creativity. Musical theatre, improvisation, movement — these are spaces where thinking differently is not just encouraged but required. Teenagers discover capabilities they didn't know they had, in an environment that is safe precisely because everyone is in the same position: figuring it out together, in public, under a deadline.
And they provide something increasingly rare: a genuine emotional outlet. Through acting, singing, movement, and character work, teenagers can express things they might not easily articulate in everyday life. Taking on a role — inhabiting someone else's joy, frustration, or courage — teaches young people to navigate and understand their own emotions. The creative process, messy as it often is, builds emotional resilience in ways that are lasting.
By the end of the week at Spotlight Academy, participants will have done something frightening and found out they could do it. That is not a small thing.
Solothurn: A City Built for the Dramatic
If you were going to design a city as a backdrop for a performing arts camp, you might end up with something like Solothurn.
Known as the most beautiful baroque city in Switzerland, Solothurn is a place of extraordinary architectural drama. The St. Ursen Cathedral — completed in 1773, approached by a grand staircase, its tower housing eleven bells — dominates the old town skyline. The clock tower, partly built in the twelfth century, still chimes with painted figures that move as it strikes. Eleven guildhalls. Eleven fountains. Eleven churches and chapels. Solothurn has cultivated a relationship with the number eleven since the Middle Ages, and nobody is entirely sure why — which makes it, if anything, more intriguing.
The city sits on the banks of the Aare River, at the foot of the Jura mountains, and has been continuously inhabited since Roman times. The French ambassador to the Old Swiss Confederacy resided here for over two centuries — which is why Solothurn is also known as the Ambassador's City. It is a place of old stone, rooftop terraces, riverside promenades, and the kind of atmosphere that makes creative work feel important.
The Swiss Youth Hostel occupies a prime position in the baroque heart of the city, with views across the rooftops of the old town. For families travelling from across Switzerland, Solothurn is well connected by rail, with direct links from Bern, Zurich, Basel, Aarau, and Olten — making it one of the most accessible camp locations in the country.
Who is the English Performing Arts Camp in Solothurn For?
Spotlight Academy welcomes teenagers aged 13 to 16. All English levels are welcome — including complete beginners.
The performing arts context makes this easier than it might sound. When you are embodying a character, following a choreographer, or working through an improvisation exercise, language becomes functional rather than academic. Teenagers who would freeze in a classroom often thrive on a stage. LevelUp's trainers are experienced at meeting performers where they are, and German-speaking staff are on site throughout the week to provide support wherever it's needed.
No prior performance experience is required. If your teenager loves performing, storytelling, music, or movement — or simply suspects they might, and hasn't had the right opportunity to find out — this is the week.
Frequently Asked Questions
**Does my child need performance experience to attend?**
Not at all. Spotlight Academy welcomes complete beginners and experienced performers alike. The programme is designed to meet every participant where they are.
**Does my child need to speak good English?**
No. All English levels are welcome, from absolute beginners upward. When you're in the middle of a scene or a dance sequence, language stops feeling like a barrier — which is exactly how LevelUp designs it.
**Is there German-speaking support on site?**
Yes. German-speaking staff are present throughout the week to help wherever needed.
**What is included in the programme?**
Five nights' accommodation at the Swiss Youth Hostel in Solothurn, all meals, the full Spotlight Academy programme, and materials. Travel to and from the camp is not included.
**How do I get to Solothurn?**
Solothurn has direct rail connections from Bern, Zurich, Basel, Aarau, and Olten. It is one of the most accessible locations in Switzerland for families travelling from across the country.
**How many places are available?**
Places are limited. LevelUp's camps regularly sell out — early booking is strongly recommended.
Book Your Place at the Musical Theatre Camp in Solothurn
Five nights in Switzerland's most beautiful baroque city. A week of workshops, creativity, and collaboration. A final performance that belongs to everyone who made it. And an English immersion so embedded in the doing that by the end of the week, nobody's thinking about it as English immersion at all.
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