Kids Take the Stage

Youth theater programming Up North

Whether your kid has a knack for commanding a room with on-the-nose impersonations and knows every line of Hamilton by heart, or they’re shy to even read aloud in class, engaging them in performing arts can help build their confidence. To get you started, here are four northern Michigan theaters raising the curtain on 2026’s youth-focused programming and performances.

City Opera House, Traverse City

It’ll be three years this summer since East Coaster Chad Lindsey brought his decade-plus theatre career from New York City to northern Michigan, where he’s now the executive director of Front Street’s City Opera House. Lindsey brought plenty of big-city connections with him, including a summer intensive for 5th–12th graders through Brooklyn’s ensemble theatre company, Hook & Eye Theater.

As one of the original founders of Hook & Eye (alongside Carrie Heitman, another Michigander), Lindsey calls the program “so near and dear,” to him. The four-day workshop will run from July 20-24, bringing 10 middle schoolers and 10 high schoolers together with “a crack team of theater practitioners to do what Hook & Eye does best,” he says.

That is, helping student performers take an initial musing from idea to a fully realized and audience-ready production. “I’m thrilled we can bring them here to work with our students,” says Lindsey.

What’s happening in 2026: On April 12 at 1:30pm, catch a performance of an original play by the winner of another Opera House program, the Page 2 Stage Young Playwrights Lab (which kicked off during the 2025 school year), where six area high schoolers compete to have their original stage script produced. “We pair them with playwriting mentors from across the country,” Lindsey explains. “Some are from Chicago, sometimes New York, some are local or part-time locals, all have extensive experience mentoring in the arts.” Those mentors work with students via Zoom for a month before joining them in person during production week.

Then, from July 27-31, the Opera House hosts Take It From the Top, a five-day Broadway intensive where students of all skill levels hone their singing, dancing, and acting chops.

Kids will love: Learning from instructors who’ve made theatre their day job.

Learn more at cityoperahouse.org/events.

Little Traverse Civic Theatre, Petoskey

When the crew at Little Traverse Civic Theatre (LTCT) began culling hopefuls for this spring’s production of Annie, they confronted a not-so-terrible dilemma with the young performers: “The production team made the decision to double cast the role of Annie and all the orphans,” says Michele Cole, head of LTCT’s brand new Theatre 4 Everyone (T4E) Youth Program. “We had so much wonderful talent and wanted to give everyone a chance in the spotlight.”

With rehearsals currently underway for the May 7-10 and 14-16 performances, Cole explains that one of the goals of the theatre’s volunteer-run youth program is to expand the reach of their multi-generational education opportunities, including for neurodivergent performers. Per Cole, “[We’re] using drama and music to encourage healthy and healing expressions of art.”

What’s happening in 2026: Tickets for Annie hit the box office earlier this month (March) and as northern Michigan collectively holds out for signs of warm weather, T4E’s summer and fall calendars are already filling up. Their Summer Learning Academy for 3rd–8th graders runs the week of July 27 while fall drama workshops are also in the works.

Kids will love: Getting to bring their own spin to their characters, something LTCT encourages in their young actors. “Confidence is one of the things that we love to watch grow,” says Cole.

Learn more at LTCT.org.

Old Town Playhouse, Traverse City

Campfires and paintball battles are all well and good, but for summer campers of the strictly thespian variety, there’s always the air-conditioned reprieve of Old Town Playhouse’s summer day camps (where water balloon fights are actually still on the agenda). With 14 total camps on the 2026 calendar and taking place at two locations (Old Town Playhouse and The MATCH in Cherryland Center), OTP offers tons of opportunities for kids from age five through 18 to get a taste of the limelight—or, even control the limelight with the teen Tech Class and Crew program.

And while their most popular camps usually fill up within minutes of registration opening (March 1), kids can still get in on the action attending performances of The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo Kids, Robin Hood: Naught in Nottingham, and more, all led by OTP’s Young Company youth crew.

What’s happening in 2026: Besides summer programming, Young Company is always adding classes, camps, and performances—like The Giver on March 26 and 28—to the calendar, so make sure to check it out.

Kids will love: Making friends in a judgement-free zone. “We provide a place for students to feel free to express themselves and to not be afraid of making mistakes,” says OTP Young Company Executive Director Melissa May. “...If you fail, we're here to help you get up and try again.”

Learn more at oldtownplayhouse.com/youth-learning.

Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts, Manistee

Up until her retirement a couple years ago, Broadway performer Karen Curlee offered youth theatre programming at the Ramsdell, something executive director Laura Ortiz-LaVelle is working to get back on the calendar this summer (though those plans aren’t set in stone yet). “Providing arts opportunities to youth in northern Michigan is essential,” says Ortiz-LaVelle, adding that in the meantime, the theatre’s offering a summertime Creativity Art Camp where students engage their confidence through creativity in hands-on mediums—painting, sculpting and more led by experts in each artistry. Only three seasons into the camp, it’s already a huge hit in the community. “The first year it was only one week which sold out pretty quickly,” says Ortiz-LaVelle. This July, they’ll split the program into two cohorts—one for ages six through 10 and another for ages 11 through 15—with a week dedicated to each group.

What’s happening in 2026: Get those friendship bracelets and bejeweled costumes ready for Kanin Wren’s Taylor Swift Experience, an all-ages tribute show featuring the Queen of Pop’s top tracks including singalong faves “You Belong With Me” and “Shake It Off.” Wren, a downstate local, will perform the evening of Thursday, July 2.

Kids will love: Beating the heat away from screens (really!)

Learn more at ramsdelltheatre.org/camp.

Lakeside Shakespeare Festival, Frankfort

Bonus! The Lakeside Shakespeare Festival, which is known for its performances straight out of the 17th-century at Tank Hill in Frankfort, has announced the return of free summer theater camp opportunities for kids ages 6-14 and an internship opportunity for high school students.

Camps will run as three-day workshops led by LSF’s professional Chicago theatrical teaching team and then conclude as a performance ahead of LSF’s own show. Theater Explorers (ages 6-9) will learn and rehearse July 28-30 and perform July 30 from 6-7pm, while Rising Stars (ages 10-14) will have their rehearsals July 29-31 and then two performances: one on July 31 and one on Aug. 1.

Last but not least, high schoolers can apply for a two-week, unpaid internship program to go behind the scenes of the entire Lakeside Shakespeare Festival production.

Learn more at theworldsastage.org/interns.

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