The standard of performances this year was as high as we have come to expect from these marvellous young artists.

The audiences at Miller Outdoor Theatre got a big, fat welcome back to the early 1960s, where tall hair and bright, jarring outfits were all the rage, thanks to TUTS' Humphreys School of Musical Theatre's fun and boisterous production of HAIRSPRAY. With a pastiche score by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman and witty book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan HAIRSPRAY is a faithful musical version of John Waters' 1988 film of the same name. The story follows larger-than-life Tracy Turnblad as she tries to secure a coveted spot on the famous Corny Collins Show -- no easy task thanks to the show's producer, Velma Von Tussle and her daughter, Amber. Backed by her doting father Wilbur, plus-sized and hesitant mother Edna, and sheltered best friend Penny, Tracy won't let anything stop her as she sets out to change Baltimore, and the world, for good. The stage was full of wonderful performers, so much so that it was difficult to choose whom to watch. 

With a 22-member cast, ranging in ages from 13 to 19-years-young, featuring remarkable performances by the likes of Alex Kirby and Sam Primack, Valley Youth Theatre is staging INTO THE WOODS, now at the Herberger Theater in Phoenix.

Growing more spectacular every year, the Fourth Annual Blumey Awards, presented by Wells Fargo, recognizes Excellence in High School Theater and celebrates the hard work and dedication it takes to perform in musical theater.

Cookeville High School's production of West Side Story claimed top honors - the award for Best Show of 2014/15 - last Saturday at the second annual Nashville High School Musical Theatre Awards, presented at Lipscomb University's Collins Alumni Auditorium and hosted by Melinda Doolittle.

But not all of our best-known teen actors are studying in the traditional secondary school manner. Today, we focus on Shane Kopischke, a 17-year-old rising high school senior who is home-schooled and currently celebrating his 11th year of doing stage productions.

Edward Albee once described fellow playwright Thornton Wilder's Our Town as,'...probably the finest play ever written by an American'. It is a play full of moving, intelligent, funny, and genuine moments and the ensemble cast of Newbury Park High School's Panther Players delivers a production of professional proportions.

The Stephen Schwartz coming-of-age musical that helped put Bob Fosse on the map exploded onto Broadway in 1972. It then had a successful televised version in 1981. With the recent 2013 revival, the theatre world and all who see it are rediscovering this powerful show. It now has a showing through May 2nd with the Theatre Department at Agoura High School.

East Lake High's reputation for great local theatre continues with this wonderful production, featuring a revelatory performance in the title character.

If writer P.L. Travers, the notoriously protective creator of Mary Poppins, was even half so prickly as we have been led to believe she was - thanks in large part to the screenplay for Saving Mr. Banks, the film retelling of her experiences with Walt Disney, et al, over the film adaptation of her beloved work - it's very easy to imagine how she might cringe at the thought of high school students taking on the musical theater version of her timeless story. However, if she knew in advance that it was being produced by Nashville's Christ Presbyterian Academy, under the direction of an artist as exacting as Paula Flautt, we rather think Miss Travers would be pleased -and without reservation.

Next week, theater students at Nashville's Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) will hit the stage in one of childhood's most beloved stories, penned by P.L. Travers and adapted for the stage: Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins. This musical tale features a family in disrepair; a family in need of rescue that comes in an astonishing form.

A local theatre educator, Kevin Kuchar of the Act Two @ Levine Program, has been nominated for the inaugural Excellence in Theatre Education Award, presented by Carnegie Mellon University and the Tony Awards. We talk to some of his current and former students about why they nominated their teacher.

Santa Barbara high school students bring audiences a range of exciting musicals, including Legally Blonde, Crazy for You, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Young Frankenstein.

The Highwood Theatre's student production of 'August: Osage County' aims to create an open dialogue within the community to raise education and awareness of mental health issues.

Today the spotlight shines on University School of Nashville's McKenna Harrington, a 16-year-old junior who debuts as Millie Owens next week in Circle Players' production of William Inge's Picnic (I'm her director, for sure, and probably not all that objective about her immense talents and spot-on instincts.

Hairspray, directed by Scott Wilson is performing at Centennial High School, 1441 Bethel Rd, Columbus, OH 43220. Performances run through March 14th with performances March 12th, 13th & 14th @ 7:00 pm and matinee on Saturday March 14th @ 2:00 pm.

Nearly150 students filled the Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center Friday morning for an early- and unforgettable- Greater Austin High School Musical Theatre Awards (GAHSMTA) nominations ceremony. Surrounded by eager theatre students, excited teachers and directors, and local Austin media outlets, the GAHSMTA Select Ensemble (in true musical theatre fashion), under the direction of the Long Center's Education and Outreach Director Ginger Morris, performed an impressive Broadway-style opener leading up to the morning's big announcement.

Today the spotlight shines on University School of Nashville's Aidan Watt, who during his four years at USN has been cast in every production - "aside from Noises Off, which I did tech for," he explains. As part of the amazing theater program at USN, Aidan's been learning from the best: Catherine Coke, whose resume includes work on all levels of professional theater, heads the program, with the estimable Jim Manning, perhaps Nashville's hardest working scenic designer (not to detract from any of the other designers in town, of course, who do great work, but Jim Manning - a 2012 First Night Star Award winner - tends to work on multiple productions for multiple companies at the same time. Whew!), heading technical and design teams.

Today, we introduce you to Arden Taylor Guice, a 17-year-old high school, whose unique theatrical life sets her apart from others in her age group: She's been a student at Franklin High School, but in her senior year she was lucky enough to gain an internship with the musical theatre program at Belmont University and is now finishing school online. She's also a veteran of Sondra Morton's Act Too Players troupe in Franklin!

A school receives a mysterious script about a girl who died long ago. The director disappears. A new director arrives just in time and knows all about the story of the play. In fact, she seems to know it too well. And how did she get the dead girl's ring? Are the students of Herbert Hoover High too wrapped up in miscues, awful accents, and stolen boyfriends to notice? Revenge is coming. Who will pay the price when the real world and the play collide?

Penn High School sure brought those dancing feet in their performance of '42nd Street'! After two cancelations, and a lot of cold weather, The Penn High School Theater Department finally opened their 2015 Spring Musical, '42nd Street' on Saturday February 21st. Even with the diversity and challenges faced during the week, this cast brought it all and gave one of the best performances I've ever seen at a high school level. Sitting in the audience, I got chills as I saw each and every performer on stage give it their all and perform the best show they could.

Today's spotlight falls upon Hume Fogg Academic Magnet High School's Caitlin Oden, who could have been the inspiration for every fictional princess ever: She's blonde, pretty, poised and self-possessed. Even her name - Caitlin Mirabel Oden - has the ring of royalty to it (say it slowly: Princess Caitlin Mirabel...sounds ideal, right?), although Caitlin's down-to-earth and focused on her longterm goals in the theater.

Elmer Rice's play The Adding Machine premiered on Broadway in 1923, yet it speaks to the issues of the day: mechanization, corporation, immigration, sexism and bigotry--all at the expense of the individual human being. Fast foward: 2015. Nearly 100 years later, we're still there. So says Catherine Coke, director of The Adding Machine at University School of Nashville.