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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 a Fall Showcase, a Winter White Box and a Spring Shakespeare, plus 4 Main Stage Days, where 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

Our Main Stage Days begin with master classes led by professional theater artists from around the country, followed by a company pizza party before seeing a Northern Stage production. Finally, after the performance, our students participate in a talkback with the cast to ask questions about the theater industry.

This year we will have 4 Main Stage Days:
Selling Kabul – Sunday, 10/22/2023
A Christmas Carol – Sunday, 12/10/2023
Constellations – Sunday, 2/11/2024
The Play That Goes Wrong – Sunday, 3/24/2024

Registration Fee for Main Stage Days: $300

Financial Aid is available
! Click HERE to learn more about our Sliding Scale Tuition Program and additional scholarships

YES Fall Showcase

Directors: Carol Dunne, Kevin David Thomas, Sam Empey
Cast: YES Actors
View Calendar HERE

The Youth Ensemble Studio productions begin with our Fall Showcase, back for a second year after a hugely successful debut in 2022. 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 the project director and a vocal coach, and the company will work together on group numbers. The Fall Showcase is the best opportunity of the year to take a leap forward as a performer and introduces the YES company to our community.  

Rehearsal and Performance Dates: September 12 – October 8, 2023

Registration Fee for Fall Showcase:
$300

Financial Aid is available! Click HERE to learn more about our Sliding Scale Tuition Program and additional scholarships.

YES Winter White Box

Director: Robert David Grant, Gabriel Levey
Cast: YES Actors (high school)
View Calendar HERE

In this new and exciting advanced program, YES students will get the opportunity to devise a completely original new piece in the tradition of Commedia and clown. Improvisation and play are central components to all acting; this project will leave young actors with the experience of openness and reckless abandon that clown instills, teaching them to bring that same confidence and creativity to their other work. Be prepared to move, make a big ol’ ruckus, show off and have fun, maybe too much fun and then some more fun, just for fun!

Rehearsal and Performance Dates: November 28 – December 15, 2023

Registration Fee for Winter White Box:
$400

Financial Aid is available
! Click HERE to learn more about our Sliding Scale Tuition Program and additional scholarships.

YES Spring Shakespeare

Director: Robert David Grant
Cast: YES Actors
View Calendar HERE

YES actors will rehearse and perform a fully produced play from Shakespeare’s Canon. 

YES Spring Shakespeare Julius Caesar

“Beware the Ides of March…”
Political unrest and protests in the streets. Feuding influencers and rampant misinformation. Ancient Rome has never felt so close to home…

Join us for YES Company’s production of the original political thriller, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Full of action, intrigue and conspiracy – not to mention some of the most memorable speeches in the English language – YES’s Caesar is a wonderful opportunity for young actors to dig into Shakespeare’s language from a decidedly modern perspective. This production places Caesar and his rivals in a world of TikTok and Instagram, and asks us all to consider who we follow and how far we’ll go to protect an idea.

Adapted and Directed by Robert David Grant (Northern Stage’s Macbeth and King Lear), this production is open to students grades 6-12.

Rehearsal and Performance Dates: March 12 – April 14, 2024

Registration Fee for Spring Shakespeare:
$550

Financial Aid is available
! Click HERE to learn more about our Sliding Scale Tuition Program and additional scholarships.

YES Season 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 Director of Education Robert David Grant at rgrant@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 Director of Education Robert David Grant at rgrant@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.