The California State Summer School for the Arts Theater Department is chaired by B.J. Dodge, acting and movement instructor who directs the Community Arts Partnership Theater Program at Plaza de la Raza in Los Angeles, and has taught at CSU Long Beach and CalArts.

A partial list of the California State Summer School for the Arts Theater faculty includes voice and acting instructor EvaMarii Johnson, who has served on the faculties of Cornell University and Northwestern University and has extensive Broadway and regional theater acting experience; Ed Douglas, a noted Hollywood fight choreographer and stunt man, who teaches acting and stage combat at CSSSA; Sherry Tschernisch, Tai Chi Chuan and acting instructor, who was a member of the famed San Francisco Actors Workshop under the direction of Herbert Blau, and currently teaches at CalArts; Leira Satlof, acting, voice and musical theater instructor, holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music in Operatic Performance and Musical Theatre. She also has an MFA from Humboldt State University in Directing Musical and Operatic Theater. She has directed opera, musical theatre, revues, plays and original works at companies across the United States; Sayda Trujillo is a performer, writer and teacher and a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts and Dell'Arte International. Work abroad includes teaching, directing and performing in Germany, Spain and Guatemala. At CSSSA Sayda teaches Contact Improvisation and Acting. She teaches Voice and Movement at Pace University in New York City; Trace Turville works in theatre, television and film on both coasts. Trace is an acting instructor at CSSSA and holds an MFA in acting from the California Institute of the Arts. She currently works and lives in the Los Angeles Area; Cal Pritner, teaches Shakespearean Acting at CSSSA. The founding artistic director of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, and the retired chair of the Illinois State University Theater department that produced the founders of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Cal is the coauthor of How to Speak Shakespeare and Introduction to Play Analysis, and the author of Mark Twain and Me Unlearning Racism.