Join us for JTF ’26!
We are headed back to JTF West in Sacramento with Junie B.’s Essential Survival Guide To School JR.! Join us for a weekend filled with musical theater workshops, professional performances, and theater friendships. Each troupe performs fifteen minutes from a Broadway Junior show for adjudication by a panel of musical theater experts. The weekend also features professional development for teachers, workshops for students and parents, a New Works Showcase featuring new musical adaptations soon to be released and concludes with a grand finale concert!
The JTF process is unlike any other rehearsal process at LTGA. The JTF team is made up of students from 8 – seniors in high school. That wide range of ages and skills gives us a chance to challenge our less experienced students and for our older students, they have the opportunity to be leaders and role models for the younger students. The JTF show has no sets, props, or costumes. That means we must use our skills of singing, dancing, and acting to really tell the story. The long JTF rehearsal process gives a chance to work on those skills.
JTF also provides opportunities beyond the festival. In the summer of 2025 we have 3 students that were in our JTF24 cast that are going to New York City to participate in iTheatrics Academy to workshop new Broadway Junior shows.
If you have any questions about the festival, please reach out to our Associate JTF Director, Chad Haney at JTF@lyrictheatreokc.org.
Ages: 8 years old through senior year in high school
Auditions: Aug 9, 2025
Travel dates: February 5-9, 2026
Pricing (subject to change): Students – $1,575 Adults – $1,400
If you are interested in JTF ‘26, please complete the information form below. Completing this form does not commit you to the trip, nor does it guarantee you a spot in the cast. It does put you on our JTF email list and helps us with our show and trip planning.
Lyric Academy and the Junior Theater Festival
The Junior Theater Festival program at Lyric is designed to be an elevated theatre learning experience for students of all ages. It is the rare opportunity for our youngest to perform alongside our most experienced and for new students to find their place quickly. We expect every student to be involved in every part of our 15 minute performance. Everyone is onstage the entire time. We expect our older students to be leaders and our youngest students always rise to the occasion.
Lyric’s JTF program requires serious commitment from students, parents and the creative team. Our goal is to help our young performers grow into creative, collaborative, compassionate, professional, kind, hard-working young adults. To enrich and enhance the students skills in acting, dance, voice, and rehearsal etiquette. To create a positive and safe environment where students are free to take risks, be bold, be their true selves, and embrace the uniqueness of those around them.
We are intentional about creating a cast that is supportive of each other. In a 15 minute performance, with no props, no costumes, no set, you have to rely on your skills, and more importantly, each other to tell the story. JTF is designed to be an ensemble driven experience and we will operate with that mentality. Every show has lead or named roles, but without an ensemble, it’s just a voice recital!
In our JTF program they will enhance their performance skills, but it goes beyond that. JTF, and the producing organizations (iTheatrics, Music Theatre International, Playbill, and Disney Musicals) want students to understand there is more to theatre than what you see on stage. Students can participate in the technical theatre track. We will meet Broadway composers and book writers. We will learn about the songwriting process, and students will be exposed to how social media can bring awareness to our art form. We will also learn the importance of creating theatre that is inclusive and accessible to all.
The JTF experience doesn’t end after the festival. iTheatrics offers summer academies in New York City for all students, and every year they hold auditions for choreography videos. As students get older, there are internship opportunities for college students.
We hope you will join us on our Junior Theater Festival journey. If you have any questions related to JTF, please reach out to our festival coordinator, Chad Haney – JTF@LyricTheatreOKC.org
JTF ’25
JTF25 was a BLAST! Congratulations to our cast and creative team on a fantastic performance, adjudication, and trip overall! For our 15 minute cut of Seussical, JR our group was recognized festival-wide for their Excellence in Acting! Brett H. and Foster T. were chosen as our group’s All Stars. Shout out to our official Social Media Ambassadors, Charlotte B. and Hannah H., for their creative work! Emma D., Larkin S., Milo A., and Jenivieve A. competed in the Tech Olympics. Piper A., Mack C., Brett H., and Vivienne S. were selected to audition, and called back, for iTheatrics’ Special Projects for Broadway Jr.’s Choreography Videos. Piper also was asked to serve as Dance Captain for Dean McFlicker (award-winning producer and director). It was an incredible trip full of fantastic performances, workshops, feedback, and friends.
Director: Rozz Grigsby
Choreographer: Ashlyn Adams
Music Director: Chad Haney
JTF ’24
Our first trip to JTF was a success! Congratulations to our cast and creative team on a fantastic performance, adjudication, and trip overall! For our 15 minute cut of James and the Giant Peach, JR our group was recognized festival-wide for their Excellence in Acting! Riley M. (Centipede) and Elliott G. (James) were chosen as our group’s All Stars, and Piper A. was recognized for her Outstanding Individual Performance as our Ladahlord! Shout out to our official Social Media Ambassadors, Charlotte B. and Sawyer S., for their creative work! Emma D., Mia M., Laine C., and Eliana T. competed in the Tech Olympics alongside our new friends from Poland! Dylan H. and Piper A. were selected to audition, and were both called back, for iTheatrics’ Special Projects for Broadway Jr.’s Choreography Videos. And finally, Miller D. was selected as a concert soloist and performed a duet, “Alone in the Universe” from Seussical, with Broadway’s own Andrew Barth Feldman. It was an incredible trip full of fantastic performances, workshops, feedback, and friends.
Director: Rozz Grigsby
Choreographer: Ashlyn Adams
Music Director: Chad Haney
Stage Manager: Lauren Leppke