Building a school theatre program comes with a number of challenges – particularly when starting from scratch. In these instances, a few roadblocks prevent sustainability –funding, access to training for staff, and a pipeline of interested students. The Educational Theatre Foundation (ETF) is aiming to address these issues with the JumpStart Theatre program and a network of cultural partners.
ETF chatted with two such partners, Bridget Cavaiola Stone, Director of Learning and Engagement at La Jolla Playhouse, and Coty Forno, Founder & CEO of Mountain City Center for the Arts (MCCA), to get an on-the-ground look at the process and impact of building theatre programs in underfunded schools around the country.
Inside the JumpStart Theatre Program
While enthusiasm is essential to launching a theatre program, making it a sustainable endeavor for schools who’ve never had one before takes a lot more—including structured training, ongoing mentorship, a multi-year roadmap, and supporting resources.
Founded in 2015, JumptStart Theatre is a collaborative partnership between ETF, Music Theatre International (MTI), iTheatrics, Broadway Media, and five regional cultural partners who offer much-needed resources and dedicated in-school support.
MTI offers the participating schools free licensing for shows; iTheatrics provides the cultural partners with teacher Boot Camps for JumpStart Theatre teachers and other professional development resources; Broadway Media provides microphones and sound equipment, projectors, and digital backgrounds to participating schools; and ETF grants funding to the cultural partners to run the programs in a truly collaborative effort.
The Structure
Before a cultural program can make its way into a school, the process starts with a screening process. “We send out an application, then sit down with the principal and teachers to be sure they know exactly what the commitment looks like and feel secure about the support behind it,” explains Forno, whose MCCA anchors the intersection of rural Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virgnia.
An important part of that selection process is ensuring everyone is on board. “Number one is administration support,” says Cavaiola Stone of La Jolla Playhouse. “If the principal is cheerleading the effort and helping find resources, that’s crucial.”
From there, the three-year roadmap kicks in:
- Year One: With the paperwork signed, schools dive into an intensive first season. A teaching-artist mentor visits roughly 20–25 times, offering support, coaching the educators leading the program, and troubleshooting in real time. “In year one we’re more hands-on in demonstrating or leading activities,” says Forno. “As they go through the year, they become less reliant on us…just the confidence of knowing how to lead the room makes a difference.” In addition to in-house training hours, bootcamps bracket the year. Initially taught by iTheatrics, the programming is now run by cultural partners, offering an opportunity for participating schools to connect, while also giving novice directors a safety net as students mount their first full musical.
- Year Two: Once the inaugural show proves what’s possible, mentors step back a bit with fewer site visits but remain a familiar face. Teachers start experimenting, bringing in college tech students, looping shop classes into set construction, or embedding theatre electives into the school day. “The deeper the roots dig into the whole school, the easier it is for the program to last,” says Cavaiola Stone. “They’re not having to do all of it, but [fellow educators] have a sense of pride that they took part in the musical that year.”
- Year Three: By the final program year, schools usually run their productions with confidence, with mentors dropping in a few times a year or just when needed. Even after “graduation,” partners don’t disappear. “We also provide graduated schools up to five support hours—no one gets cut off if they’re worried or desperate,” says Cavaiola Stone.
Showcasing Progress & Community
While the impact for educators and students are felt day-to-day, it’s the end-of-year performances and the region-wide JumpStart Theatre Showcase that truly illustrate the impact to principals, parents, and the community. Each school picks a show (with complimentary licensing provided by MTI) and produces it from start-to-finish, giving students and educators a complete theatrical journey that has quickly become a hit with audiences.
“A cast of twenty kids drew four-hundred people from the community,” says Forno. For her rural cohort, many audience members were seeing live theatre for the first time and stuffing donation buckets to keep it going. “It sneaks in so unexpectedly…the teamwork and collaboration involved and the joy it brings. Nobody’s competing against each other. There’s no winning or losing. Everybody gets to share the joy and the magic of it. It’s been my favorite thing to witness because it really does change the fabric of the school community.”
At La Jolla Playhouse, the experience is also an introduction into the larger world of professional theatre. “[Students] get to perform in one of our theatres, which is really exciting because last year they performed in our Potiker Theatre immediately following Redwood, which had recently ended its run and subsequently went to Broadway, and then the very next performance on that stage was our JumpStart students,” Cavaiola Stone says. “It was a pretty exciting moment. They’re screaming for each other and happy for each other and singing along…it’s really lovely.”
The showcase functions as a live report card for the program. Administrators see students who once struggled with confidence command a professional stage. The community witnesses the economic and civic energy a single musical can spark. For the kids, microphone in hand, they often sum it up with a similar post-show reflection: “This is my family. These are my friends. This is where I fit in.”
Creating the Future of Theatre
The JumpStart Theatre program doesn’t end with the final curtain in 8th grade, however. Both Cavaiola Stone and Forno note that many students are entering high school and immediately asking “where’s my theatre program.” The programs have given them a consistent place to belong while offering schools a talent pipeline of dedicated Thespians ready to continue their journey.
The program also unlocks futures students never imagined. Fornos’s Showcase mentors include a pre-med senior who says audition practice made medical-school interviews easy and taught vital bedside empathy, and a biochemical engineer who credits theatre’s “multitasking and collaboration” for success in the lab.
Beyond education, Cavaiola Stone recognizes that many of these students will make their way back into the community. “We always want to grow our theater community. We’re hoping we have kids that get engaged in the arts at a young age and then become audience members, donors, and supporters of the arts,” she says. “Even if they’re not going to work in the arts, I hope they take these skills and build a more empathetic world.”