First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who came out to support our production of The Wolves last month. The show was a touching glimpse into the lives of the teen girls, and we are so proud of the cast and crew who worked so hard and shared so much of their hearts with us. Getting to hear from the cast that they felt so represented by this show meant the world to us, and we hope to keep finding opportunities for our students to feel empowered by their work. This show would not have been possible without the work from our fantastic cast and incredible crew and creative team (Maggie Shircliff as their director, Jack Lockrem as stage manager, Ellie Hartman producing, and Leo Mossoff as lighting designer), and of course the audience members who trust us to handle this kind of content with care, respect, and safety.

Last week marked our first official Hadestown rehearsal! I am stoked to be directing this one and honored to be working with such an amazingly talented and passionate cast, along with Brigid Smullen (making her STARS Music Directing Debut!) and Ella Newman (Singin’ in the Rain Jr. Choreographer) on our creative team, and STARS regular designers Lori Crockett on costumes and William Waugh on lights. No spoilers yet, but this production of Hadestown will be unlike any you’ve ever seen! There are only 80 seats available per show, so make sure to grab your tickets before it’s too late!

Finally, my pitch for the high school juniors out there! It’s about time to start thinking about your college audition season. I’m so excited to be launching college audition coaching for the upcoming audition season. I’d love to help you with college lists, rep, pre-screens, audition scheduling, and even your essays. Please reach out if you have any questions, I would love to help you on your college audition journey!

Thanks for your continued support! We hope to see you at Hadestown!

It may be cold outside, but we’ve been spending the winter thinking about SUMMER! We were so excited to announce both our summer camp and our STARS Senior program shows recently! At camp this summer, our campers will be presenting “9 to 5 Jr.” during session one and “Something Rotten Jr.” during session two. There are so many great opportunities in these shows for all of our campers to shine, and we’re so excited to meet the cast and crew of these shows. If your young actor wants to be a part of it, you can register now! Also just announced is the second year of our beloved STARS Senior program for adult-beginner actors. We’re so thrilled to be producing “The Music Man Sr.” just in time for America’s 250th birthday! We hope you’ll consider joining us (even if you have stage fright)! Hadestown auditions wrapped up and we were super impressed with the nearly 100 auditions we saw. Our cast will start rehearsing in February for performances in March. Meanwhile, our Wolves cast enjoyed a well-earned winter break before hitting the ground running at The Grange. We hope you’ll join us for this one- it’s touching, hilarious, and full of heart. Our spectacular cast is performing just three times, and tickets are limited, so act fast! Finally, we just wrapped up our winter master class series, taught by Julien DaSilva. Julien is a brilliant actor and teacher, and we were honored to have him with us to lead these two workshops. From all of us at STARS, we hope you had a restful and joyful holiday season.

November has been such a fun month at STARS! We are in the midst of rehearsals for The Wolves (opening in January). The cast has had SO much fun the last few weeks between some soccer conditioning and their promo photo shoot. The show is in great shape and we’re all so excited for audiences to enjoy this meaningful and moving piece! Hadestown auditions are on Friday, meaning in just a few days, we’ll officially be working on two mainstage shows at once (for the very first time). There are only a few audition spots left, and we’d love to see you at auditions! Since last month, we’ve also launched our 2026 Rising STARS registration (The Jungle Book: Kids starts in January and meets on Friday evenings!) and our Winter Masterclass Advanced Acting series for high school and college students, taught by the amazing Julien DaSilva. Behind the scenes, the STARS Board and Staff have been busy season planning! We’re excited to be able to announce the titles for our summer camp shows and our Senior STARS show very soon, and ALL of Season 3 of STARS shortly after! Wishing you and yours a lovely Thanksgiving, and we hope to see you all soon, whether in a show, class, or audience in the coming months.

Happy Fall, and welcome to Season 2 of STARS! We’re still reeling from the success of our summer- from our 2 amazing sessions of summer camp (Beetlejuice Jr. and Singin’ in the Rain Jr.), our very first Senior show (Guys & Dolls Sr.), and the epic kick-off to our second production season (Spring Awakening), we’ve had quite the busy few months! As back-to-school chaos settled down, we were thrilled to see so many talented actors at The Wolves auditions a few weeks ago, and I can already tell this fantastic cast is going to put on a stellar production, led by the incredible Maggie Shircliff as their director. There’s lots to look forward to this season- performances of The Wolves, auditions for our spring musical (more info coming soon), another session of Rising STARS, and, of course, another jam-packed summer with opportunities for all ages. It’s crazy to think how much things have changed in just one year, but we are so grateful for the support as we reach new heights! Enjoy the first Issue of our newsletter!