I hope you’re easing into the new year as best you can. I’m tiptoeing in—staying out of the cold, cooking at home, and planning my theatre outings sparingly. Others, however, are diving right in.
Case in point: Tim McDonald, founder of the Junior Theater Festival, whom I spoke to last week as he was preparing to welcome more than 7,000 students and theatre educators from across the U.S. to Atlanta this past weekend.
The Junior Theater Festival began in 2003 as a gathering for groups performing Broadway Junior titles—condensed, author-approved musicals designed for young performers. McDonald describes that first festival, which hosted just 18 groups, as “a circus without a tent.” Today, JTF has grown into a global entity, with festivals in Australia and New Zealand.
This year’s three-day Atlanta event featured workshops, troupe performances of Broadway Junior shows, and a special panel of three JTF alumni who all made their Broadway debuts in 2025—a full-circle moment for the organization. The festival also included a concert performance by Jasmine Amy Rogers (BOOP! The Musical), who attended JTF as a student. Her appearance blended storytelling and songs tracing her path to Broadway, and the performance was filmed for potential future distribution.
Unlike many youth theatre gatherings, JTF centers on celebration over competition. While theatre groups do perform and adjudicators recognize excellence, the heart of the festival lies in connection—bringing together students who love being onstage and behind the scenes, and creating space for educators to learn from and support one another.
Following close on the heels of the Atlanta event, JTF will head to Sacramento next month with an entirely new lineup of adjudicators, panelists, and performers.
“I hope they come away with a sense of community,” says McDonald of the festival’s attendees. “I hope they make new friends from places they don’t know. Ultimately, I hope they come away with the understanding that we may all be different people with different beliefs, wants, or wishes—but we’re all people, and that deserves respect and celebration.”
Programs like this for young people are the engine that keeps American theatre moving. The latest issue of American Theatre features a long list of festivals, competitions, and training programs for young theatremakers.
No matter how you’re entering the new year—slowly or at full speed—I hope you take time to celebrate.
✏️ Around the Web✏️
- The American College Theatre Festival has suspended its 58-year affiliation with the Kennedy Center following the venue’s renaming as the Trump–Kennedy Center.
- Check out this Know a Theatre feature on Premiere Stages at Kean University.
- Love this piece by Sarah Ruhl about Wonder, a new musical co-written by Ruhl, Chad King, and Ian Axel at American Repertory Theater.
- Adjoa Andoh MBE is the inaugural resident of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s new Director’s Residency program.
- Playwright Nandita Shenoy is the recipient of the Farm Theater’s 2026-27 College Collaboration Project commission.
- Check out this interview with Soft Target playwright Emily Kaczmarek and Tamilla Woodard, director and chair of the Acting program at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.
- A spotlight on Cody Renard Richard, Tony Award–winning producer, advocate, and educator, and his career path.
- Boston Conservatory at Berklee has named Ricardo Coke-Thomas its new chair of theatre.
- The Educational Theatre Association has launched the Proud Theatre Kid campaign in response to a New York Times article about how “theatre kid” has become a new pejorative political term.
- Sadly, California College of the Arts will close at the end of the 2026-27 academic year.
- The American Theatre Wing’s latest Master Class video highlights dialect work with Dawn-Elin Fraser.
- Rosie’s Theater Kids welcomes Christopher Jackson, Lea Salonga, Sam Pinkleton, and more on its inaugural advisory board.
💫 On Social Media 💫
Teachers: Educators, how do you prepare students for adjudicated or competitive settings?
AT Readers Respond:
Blake Wilson
For things like auditions, I try to replicate the format so that they are used to how it will be.
I also remind them that art is subjective. Don’t let one person’s opinion make or break you.
Steve Wood
1. Consistency…make it normative.
2. Model behavior.
3. Some talk before.
4. Some debrief after.
5. Don’t tell them how to feel and think, and be patient with their own learning process.
Add your response here.
📰 From the Archives 📰
Coming to NY After Theatre School? It’s Nice to Have a Springboard
This 2015 article highlights an education program that was formative in my own career—the American Theatre Wing’s former Springboard NYC program.
