Northern Stage’s Youth Ensemble Studio (YES) offers a wide variety of theater opportunities for young actors in grades 6-12. Throughout the course of the academic year, YES company members develop their skills in acting, singing, dancing, voice & speech, character development, script analysis, problem solving and working as a team. This season our YES offerings include:

NEW! THEATER FOUNDATION CLASSES 
Theater Foundations is a new offering this season! Over the course of the year the students will participate in a series of classes that explores audition preparation, scene study, song interpretation, monologue work, and play reading. All who sign up will be in the program; the placement audition will decide which section they are in.

YES Foundations Class 1 & 2: September 12, 13 &19, 20, 2026
YES Foundations Class 3 & 4: October 24, 25 & 31, Nov 1, 2026
YES Foundations Class 5 & 6: November 14, 15, & 21, 22, 2026
YES Foundations Class 7 & 8: January 9, 10 & 16, 17, 2027
YES Foundations Class 9 & 10: February 6, 7 & 13, 14, 2027
YES Foundations Class 11 : March 6 & 7, 2027

SPRING SHOWCASE 
The Youth Ensemble Studio Showcase is back for a fifth year! Come join us for an evening of musical theater songs and scenes chosen to provide each and every actor with an opportunity to shine. All students will have small group sessions with a project director and a vocal coach, and the entire company will work together on group numbers. The Spring Showcase is the best opportunity of the year to take a leap forward as a performer and introduces the YES company to our community. Spring Showcase Calendar HERE.

5 MAIN STAGE DAYS
Company members spend the day at Northern Stage for master classes with cast members from our main stage productions, a company pizza party, group tickets to the show, and a post-show talkback with the artists. The Youth Ensemble Studio is a valuable home for theater kids in the Upper Valley who are passionate about theater, want to bring their skills to the next level, and share their talents with the community.

YES Main Stage Days Dates
John Proctor is The Villain: Sunday October 4, 2026
Disney’s Frozen: Sunday December 13, 2026( Second Sunday is the week of Thanksgiving)
The Getaway Driver: Sunday February 14, 2027
The Weir: Sunday April 4, 2027
Much Ado About Nothing: Sunday May 16, 2027

Please find membership details and more information below.

YOUTH ENSEMBLE STUDIO MEMBERSHIP
FOR GRADES 6-12

Registration for 2026/27 YES program will be open on May 4, 2026 at 12 PM.

We believe it is important to create a sense of community for our students and seek to provide not only world class training and experiences but a sense of community and home.

We have three different options for the YES membership with add-on options! Please find registration options and individual program descriptions below. Click HERE to learn more about our Sliding Scale Tuition Program and additional scholarships.

YES Membership A

The Complete Package
for the Full Experience

Tuition: $1,200

YES Membership B

Main Stage Days
Foundations

Tuition: $800

YES Membership C

Main Stage Days
Spring Showcase

Tuition: $650

MEMBERSHIP ADD-ONS

Please contact the box office to reserve your add-ons.

Winter Production: 
Little Women the Musical

Age: Grades 6 – 12
Tuition: $500

The YES Company will be putting on a production of Little Women the musical in the winter time, directed by Co-Director of Education Sam Empey! The production will run from February 19-21 for 4 performances. We will have auditions to get into the program early fall and then we will have character auditions in early December. Please find preliminary information below:

Program Auditions: TBD
Character Auditions: TBD

Little Women Calendar: Click HERE
Rehearsal Dates: 1/11/27-2/12/27 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM (Monday, Wednesday & Friday) and 10:00PM – 5:00 PM on Sundays. 
Tech Dates: 2/15-2/18 4:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Performance Dates: 2/19-2/21.

YES Next Stage

Age: Grades 11 & 12
Tuition: $1,000

For 11th and 12th grade students, they have the opportunity to add on the YES Next Stage Package. This package includes college preparation & counseling, one on one coachings, help filming and editing pre-screens, and audition material selection.

Additional Add-Ons

High School NYC Trip (January, 2027)
Tuition: $1,200
The trip will include 3 Broadway shows, 2 nights in a hotel, 2 dinners, Museum of Broadway, Roundtrip transportation.

YES FAQ

Click on the questions to learn more

We welcome students of all experience levels.

It is essential to have all actors together in the rehearsal room to create excellent theater. Conflicts are taken into consideration for casting, so all conflicts must be listed on each project’s audition form and may not be added after auditions. While we make every effort to accommodate conflicts, attendance at certain rehearsals and all tech/performance dates is required. Please contact Co-Directors of Education Sam Empey at sempey@northernstage.org and Kevin David Thomas at kthomas@northernstage.org if you have questions about whether your conflicts are compatible with participation in the program and would like to discuss.

A 25% deposit is required to reserve a space in all Northern Stage programs. Payments must be made in full by the program start date. In an effort to ensure theater education is accessible to all, Northern Stage offers sliding scale tuition, need-based scholarships, and payment plans for our education programs. Please click HERE to learn more. 

Northern Stage’s refund policies for Education programs:
– Cancellations 60+ days before the classes begin: 75% refund
– Cancellations 30-59 days before the classes begin: 50% refund
– Cancellations within 30 days: No refund

For additional information contact Co-Directors of Education Sam Empey at sempey@northernstage.org and Kevin David Thomas at kthomas@northernstage.org or the Box Office at boxoffice@northernstage.org.

We understand that some students are at different levels of maturity than their peers, but we design the YES program and its productions with specific grades in mind. With very few exceptions we urge you to sign up for the program/production that fits the student’s school year.

Nope! You can sign up for one or all of the offerings in a given year.

We no longer require Covid testing to participate in Northern Stage programs. Students experiencing coughing, sore throat, fever or gastrointestinal distress must contact program administrators to determine whether they can come to rehearsal/performance days.

If your child has a fever of 100 degrees or greater or if they have vomited two or more times in the past 24 hours, they may not return to Northern Stage. They are welcome back once they have been fever free for 24 hours without the aid of fever reducing medication. For further questions you can contact Sam Empey at sempey@northernstage.org.

The Northern Stage Education department will typically cancel rehearsals and classes when a majority of surrounding school districts cancel school or have an early release due to inclement weather. We will reach out through email and/or phone to alert families to any cancellations. A make-up rehearsal or class will typically be scheduled to make up for any lost time, schedule permitting. 

Weather-related performance cancellations are very unusual but do sometimes occur. If we are experiencing inclement weather on the day of a student performance, Northern Stage will determine if a cancellation is necessary and alert students’ families to the situation as quickly as possible. 

For further questions you can contact Sam Empey at sempey@northernstage.org.

You will receive confirmation from the Northern Stage Box Office, and will be contacted by the Education department closer to the start of the program with a detailed schedule and an Online Student Intake Form. This form must be completed before the start of the program or the student will be unable to participate.

No audition is required for participation in Main Stage Days or any of the productions. However, auditions do take place when required to assign roles within the productions.

Communication
Theater is about collaboration and good communication is a pillar of this activity. When you sign up for this program, you are making a commitment to clear communication. Parents must check their email regularly and read all the information we send out. We encourage YES students to be actively engaged in email communication alongside their parents.

We are grateful to Janet Miller Haines and Heywood Alexander, Education Fund donors, and our entire family of supporters for making YES scholarships possible. If you would like to set up a payment plan or have questions about payment options, please email boxoffice@northernstage.org.