Junior Players’ goal is to showcase the talent of North Texas children and youth. Our diverse production schedule provides ample opportunities for children and youth of various skills and abilities, and with a passion for specific arts, to shine. Since COVID-19, we’ve harnessed technology to mount virtual productions, widening the exposure of our talented youth.
While Junior Players is always looking for new opportunities to highlight North Texas talent and empower young voices, our annual Winter Musical, Summer Shakespeare performance, and PUP Fest collaboration with Kitchen Dog Theater have become cultural mainstays in the DFW community.
Learn more about these productions below or click here to learn about current audition opportunities today!
Junior Players' Winter Musical
Junior Players’ Winter musical program combines the best of North Texas high-school acting talent with the professional skills of local professional directors, choreographers, and designers in a teen production presented in four performances at the Moody Performance Hall (formerly Dallas City Performance Hall). Over 100 teens from the North Texas area audition for our annual Winter Musical production.
Junior Players launched its winter musical program in January 2015 with its highly successful production of In the Heights, which, in addition to being the first fully produced musical to take place in the Moody Performance Hall, brought hundreds of new and diverse audience members into the Dallas Arts District.
Junior Players' Summer Shakespeare
The Junior Players' Discover Shakespeare program, produced in collaboration with Shakespeare Dallas, has become a mainstay in the North Texas cultural scene. This production of Shakespeare, performed entirely by young adults grades 9 - 12, has provided hundreds of students with real hands-on professional theatrical training, at no cost to the participants, and has introduced thousands of young audience members to Shakespeare.
Junior Players' PUP Fest Collaboration
Junior Players and Kitchen Dog Theater started Playwrights Under Progress (PUP) Fest in 2002 as a new piece of Kitchen Dog Theater’s New Works Festival. An annual anticipated event, PUP Fest is also a component of the Dallas Playwriting Arts Collective (D-PAC), a partnership between Junior Players, Kitchen Dog Theater, and the Dallas Independent School District to provide innovative programs and opportunities for high school playwrights.The D-PAC partnership allows Junior Players and Kitchen Dog to serve an additional 1,000 DISD students through ongoing playwriting master classes throughout the school year.
PUP Fest was recognized in September 2003 with a Special Award from the Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum and allows high school playwrights the opportunity to be mentored by some of Dallas’ most renowned playwrights. Each script that is chosen is paired with a cast of teen actors and directed by local professional actors and directors.
In 2021, all 6 playwrights were awarded scholarships thanks to a generous donation by John and Kathy Palter and Bob and Linda Appel. Since then 6 scholarships have been awarded on behalf of the John Palter Memorial Fund, The Emily Javadi Foundation and other individual donors.
