Happy kids make great theater. That’s one of the things we’ve learned after nearly 20 years of making theater with young people. When kids feel supported, valued, and responsible for one another, they’re willing to take risks, work together, and discover what they’re capable of. Our performance opportunities are designed to create that kind of experience.
Explore STAGES Performance Opportunities
STAGES does not offer performance opportunities for every age group. That’s intentional. We create different opportunities because young people develop at different rates—and because different kinds of theater ask different things of the young people making it.
MAINSTAGE PRODUCTIONS
Full-scale productions with age ranges determined by the material and ensemble.
STAGES offers several full-scale musical and theatrical productions throughout the year. Depending on the material and the young people who will make up the ensemble, Mainstage productions may be open to performers as young as 10 and as old as 16. Rehearsal schedules vary by production, but every show is led by professional theater artists and fully produced with costumes, scenery, and lighting, in a theater venue.
[See Current Mainstage Productions →]
TEEN PRODUCTIONS
Occasional productions for ages 14+.
From time to time, STAGES offers productions specifically for our oldest students, generally ages 14–17. These productions give teens the opportunity to work alongside their age peers on particularly challenging or mature material. They operate like Mainstage productions, with a defined rehearsal and performance period rather than operating like one of our year-long ensemble programs.
[See Current Teen Productions →]
Note: At this time there are no Teen programs scheduled in 2026.
ACTING ENSEMBLES
Intensive, year-round ensemble-building and theater-making for ages 12+.
Our year-long Acting Ensemble programs give young people ages 12+ the opportunity to spend an entire school year building an acting company, developing skills and relationships, and working together to create a fully realized spring production of an ambitious piece of theater. In some years, STAGES also offers a Musical Theater Ensemble following the same year-round model.
[Learn more about the Acting Ensemble →]
STAGES AT BREAKWATER
A special performance partnership!
For 18 years, STAGES has partnered with the Breakwater School’s exceptional AfterCare and Enrichment center – including an annual performance opportunity for any Portland area students grades 4-8 – a unique opportunity for our two longstanding Portland educational organizations to share resources, audiences, and the joy of youth theater with our respective communities.
[See STAGES productions at Breakwater →]
Note: Registration for the 2027 Breakwater Co-Production will be open soon!
How STAGES Makes Theater
At STAGES, we believe the most important part of making theater isn’t creating the perfect cast. It’s creating a community where every young person can participate, contribute, and discover what they’re capable of. Happy kids make great theater.
We strive to meet kids where they’re at. Our programs welcome young people with different experience levels, skills, personalities, and ways of learning. We don’t expect every child to arrive knowing how to be a great performer. We expect them to show up ready to be part of something.
Our teaching artists, directors, and production teams are responsible for making the show. The young people have a different responsibility: to listen, work together, take care of one another, and contribute to the community they’re building. We’ve learned over nearly 20 years that when kids feel supported and valued, they are remarkably willing to take risks and rise to a challenge!
The way we make theater matters.
Community over Competition
Everyone who enrolls in a STAGES production gets a part. We don’t hold traditional auditions or ask young people to compete for the opportunity to participate.
Everyone Participates
We love watching all of our young performers shine. We work to create meaningful opportunities for all participants to be seen, challenged, and celebrated onstage.
The Role Isn’t the Reward
Our artistic team considers the needs of the show and the individual young people in the cast when assigning roles. The goal is to create meaningful opportunities for growth.
A word about casting at STAGES.
STAGES moved away from traditional auditions years ago because we saw how easily the process could turn theater into a competition. We don’t want a young person to begin their STAGES experience wondering whether they’re talented enough to belong. We know our casting process is different from what many families are used to. We believe it creates better opportunities for more young people, and we stand firmly behind the approach we’ve developed over nearly 20 years of making theater together.
Programs for Younger Performers
PlayVenture is where many young STAGES kids begin. PlayVenture gives younger children the opportunity to develop the skills that eventually help them thrive in a production ensemble.
They learn to listen to other people, work together, take turns, solve problems as a group, express themselves, build confidence, and participate in a community.
Those are theater skills. They’re also life skills.
From time to time STAGES will also offer opportunities for 8-9 year olds to participate in shorter, age and development-appropriate shows, which culminate in final presentations for an invited audience of friends and family.
Current STAGES offerings for younger children can be found on our main programming page.
Questions, concerns, or other feedback about STAGES performance programs are always welcome. Contact us any time!
Why Can’t Younger Kids Perform in STAGES Productions?
Many STAGES productions come with long rehearsals, and substantial scripts or music, and require focus to work productively alongside students that may be 4-5 years older.
A young child may be a wonderful actor and still be developing the reading skills, attention span, rehearsal stamina, social awareness, and independence needed for that environment.
That’s not a judgment about the child. It’s development.
And development matters to us. We believe younger children deserve experiences designed around their developmental stage, just as older kids deserve productions that allow them to work at an appropriate pace and level of challenge.
Learn more about PLAYVENTURE!
Ages 7-8
PlayVenture Program
PlayVenture is where it begins. Kids build the foundational skills that help them become successful ensemble members: listening, collaborating, expressing themselves, solving problems together, and learning how to participate in a community. [Explore PlayVenture →]