YouthFest at AACTFest 2027
YouthFest brings young theatre artists together from across the country to perform, learn, connect, and experience AACT’s national theatre festival community as part of AACTFest 2027.
YouthFest at AACTFest 2027 brings young theatre artists together from across the country to perform, learn, connect, and take part in AACT’s national theatre festival experience.
Participating youth theatre groups will share their work, receive learning-centered adjudication, attend workshops, and experience the energy of the broader AACTFest community.
What Is YouthFest?
YouthFest is the youth theatre component of AACTFest, bringing together student performers, directors, educators, and youth theatre programs from across the country as part of AACT’s national festival experience.
Participating groups present performances in a supportive, educational environment that emphasizes growth, collaboration, learning, and celebration of the theatrical arts. Each performance includes both open and private adjudication sessions designed to encourage reflection, discussion, and artistic development.
In addition to performances and adjudication, YouthFest participants can take part in workshops, festival activities, mentoring opportunities, and community-building experiences while connecting with theatre artists from across the country.
Explore a Recent YouthFest
Looking for a real-world example of the YouthFest experience? Explore highlights, award recipients, photos, and video from YouthFest at AACTFest 2025 to get a feel for the performances, learning opportunities, and community connections that make YouthFest such a memorable experience.
Festival schedules, activities, and programming may vary by year. Information for upcoming festivals will be shared on their respective event pages.
How YouthFest Works
YouthFest at AACTFest brings youth theatre companies together for performances, adjudication, workshops, mentoring, and national community theatre experiences designed to encourage creativity, collaboration, growth, and connection.
- Perform: Participating groups present their productions as part of the national YouthFest schedule.
- Receive feedback: Each performance includes open and private adjudication sessions focused on encouragement, learning, and artistic growth.
- Learn and connect: Students, directors, and educators can participate in workshops, mentoring opportunities, discussions, and festival activities throughout the event.
- Experience AACTFest: YouthFest participants also have access to AACTFest performances, workshops, and events as part of the larger national festival experience.
Participation information, schedules, guidelines, and application details for YouthFest at AACTFest 2027 will be posted as they become available.
What to Expect at YouthFest
YouthFest at AACTFest combines performance, education, mentorship, and community in a national festival environment created to inspire young theatre artists.
While every festival experience is unique, past YouthFest events have included:
- Adjudicated youth theatre performances
- Open and private adjudication sessions focused on encouragement and artistic growth
- Workshops, mentoring opportunities, and educational experiences
- Social and community-building activities for participants
- Opportunities to experience the larger AACTFest community
Note: Specific schedules, workshops, performances, and activities vary by year. Full details for YouthFest at AACTFest 2027 will be shared as plans are finalized.
How to Participate
Applications are now open for YouthFest at AACTFest 2027. Interested youth theatre companies should review the Participant Guide, complete the online application, and submit all required materials by the stated deadlines.
To be eligible, participating companies must:
- Maintain AACT Organizational Membership
- Read and review the YouthFest Participant Guide
- Complete the AACT YouthFest Application
- Submit one letter of support and up to three photos and/or videos from past productions that speak to the spirit and quality of the organization’s work
Important dates:
- August 14, 2026: Letter of support and optional production photos/videos due
- September 16, 2026: Notification of acceptances sent no later than this date
- Week of October 12, 2026: Participating Theatre Orientation Meeting
- October 31, 2026: Publicity and marketing materials due; grant funding requests due
- December 1, 2026: Funding amount notifications sent
- March 1, 2027: Theatre companies must register for the festival through AACTFest Registrar Karen Matheny
- April 1, 2027: AACT YouthFest Technical Form due
Questions? Contact AACT YouthFest Chair, Katy Merriman, at [email protected] .
The Jack K. Ayre and Frank Ayre Lee Theatre Foundation
AACT YouthFest is made possible in part by a grant from the Jack K. Ayre and Frank Ayre Lee Theatre Foundation.
Jack K. Ayre celebrated his 90th birthday before passing away in December 2011. At his birthday party, he sang with a barbershop quartet, one of his favorite activities, and celebrated with his cousin and lifelong friend, Frank Ayre Lee.
Though as adults they lived on opposite sides of the country, the cousins kept in touch through letters that showed a love for the written word and an irreverent sense of humor. Jack participated in theatre productions at Drew University in New Jersey and at a community theatre in Connecticut in his younger years, and continued that interest when he moved to California. Mr. Lee was also an avid theatre supporter and dabbled in playwriting, adapting Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book for a children’s theatre production, and penning McSteg, a tongue-in-cheek discourse, ribbing his cousin Jack and based on a scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
The Jack K. Ayre and Frank Ayre Lee Theatre Foundation was created by the children of Frank Ayre Lee as a tribute to their father, who passed away in August 2012, and a legacy for the creative endeavors of Jack, who was an advertising executive and public relations director.
