TYA/USA Virtual Conference / May 14–16, 2020

The TYA/USA National Festival & Conference is going virtual. While we are unable to gather in person, and we face an uncertain future, the TYA community will convene online for three days of connection, inspiration, and community.

This three-day event, presented in partnership with Broadway On Demand, features powerful keynotes, exclusive recordings of TYA performances, a song slam of new works, cross-community dialogue, and artistic creation exercises. The Virtual Festival & Conference offers artistic exchange, meaningful learning, and resources for navigating the current crisis for attendees from across the country. Join us May 14-16, 2020 from your own home.

Questions? Contact us at info@tyausa.org.

Registration is now closed. 

How can we collectively navigate the current crisis we face? How can we continue to serve our young audiences, both remotely now and eventually in community again? What do we want the field of TYA to look like on the other side of this unprecedented time?

Over the past few weeks, TYA/USA has brought our field together as we face the biggest challenges we’ve known. Unable to meet together in Washington DC as planned, we will present the 2020 TYA/USA Virtual Festival & Conference May 14-16, 2020. This event will engage the largest audience of TYA professionals we’ve ever served, reaching across the country and beyond to bring artists, educators, administrators, and theatres together. The Virtual Festival & Conference will provide powerful keynote speakers offering tools for managing the current moment and envisioning the future; dynamic discussions featuring voices from across our sector and offering a range of perspectives as we contemplate the present; inspiring and joyful artistry through community creation projects; and exclusive streaming of exciting TYA productions to fuel creativity and hope. Together, we will share our concerns, gain new insights, and forge a path forward.

In an effort to serve the largest audience possible, we are offering this event to anyone and everyone regardless of their ability to pay through our Access For All initiative. Now is the moment for us all to unite with the loudest voice possible. We ask that you consider making a donation when you register to support our efforts as we serve the national TYA community.

Our 2020 Host

Broadway On Demand is the premiere streaming service offering an extensive and wide-ranging library of video on demand content, exclusive livestream events, interactive platforms, and educational resources.  It is designed as a virtual performing arts complex offering not only Broadway shows and movie musicals but also, individual artists, concert series, performance venues, and theatres around the world. Additionally, using a unique licensing interface, approved middle school, high school, and college productions will have the opportunity to be streamed to a global audience.  Broadway On Demand fulfills Broadway’s long-held promise of being the ‘longest street in the world’.

Featured Speakers

An exciting lineup of dynamic and accomplished speakers will offer big ideas, thought-provoking questions, and challenge the TYA field to think about our work in new ways.

  • Amelia Brown

    Keynote Speaker

    Amelia Brown is a writer, speaker, artist and consultant with more than 20 years of community development experience spanning four continents. She earned the first and only self-designed master’s degree integrating arts, emergency management and community development from the University of Minnesota.  She managed the first Twin Cities placemaking residency and contributed to the development of a cultural corridor with Twin Cities LISC.  Amelia’s presentations and articles are the first to focus on the role of arts in disaster recovery in multiple international publications and conferences.  She developed the first Community Emergency Relief Fund to support artist leadership in emergencies with Springboard for the Arts.   As the first Creative CityMaking Program Manager at the City of Minneapolis, she partners artists with City staff to work on addressing equity goals.  She holds multiple advisory roles including with the TPT Community Resiliency Council. She is a member of  the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture Cabinet and Amelia is the Board Chair of Springboard for the Arts.  As the founder of Emergency Arts, Amelia provides resources to build individual and community resilience through integrating arts and emergency management.

  • Chelsea Clinton

    Keynote Speaker

    Chelsea Clinton

    Vice Chair, Clinton Foundation

    As vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, Chelsea Clinton works alongside the Foundation’s leadership and partners to help create economic opportunity, improve public health, and inspire civic engagement and service across the United States and around the world.  In particular, Chelsea focuses on promoting early brain and language development through the Too Small to Fail initiative, and uplifting/empowering female entrepreneurs and women-led businesses around the world through initiatives like the Caribbean-focused Women in Renewable Energy (WIRE) Network. She also serves on the boards of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

    In addition to her Foundation work, Chelsea also teaches at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and has written several books for young readers, including the New York Times bestsellers She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World and She Persisted Around the World, as well as Start Now! You Can Make a Difference; Don’t Let Them Disappear; and It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going. She is also the co-author of The Book of Gutsy Women and Grandma’s Gardens with her mom Hillary Clinton and of Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? with Devi Sridhar.

    Chelsea holds a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford, a Master of Public Health from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, and both a Master of Philosophy and a Doctorate in international relations from Oxford University. She lives with her husband Marc, their children Charlotte, Aidan and Jasper, and dog Soren in New York City.

  • Yalda T. Uhls

    Keynote Speaker

    Presented with the generous support of the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America

    Yalda T. Uhls, MBA, PhD is an internationally recognized, award-winning research scientist, educator and author, studying how media affect young people. Her peer reviewed research has been featured in many news outlets including NPR and the NY Times. As a big believer in bridging research and practice, along with many years of translational work for lay audiences, Uhls recently founded The Center for Scholars & Storytellers, affiliated with UCLA. Uhls is also an adjunct professor at UCLA where she does research on how media affect the social behavior of tweens and teens and teaches a class on Digital Media and Human Development; she is a senior advisor for national non-profit Common Sense Media; and is the author of the parenting book Media Moms & Digital Dads: A Fact not Fear Approach to Parenting in the Digital Age. In her former career, she was a senior movie executive at MGM and Sony. Dr. Uhls knowledge of how media content is created and the science of how media affect children inform her unique perspective.

  • Idris Goodwin

    Keynote Speaker

    Across two decades Idris Goodwin has forged a multi-faceted career as an award-winning playwright, Break Beat poet, director, educator, and organizer.

    His critically acclaimed plays like And In This Corner Cassius Clay, How We Got On, and Hype Man: A Break Beat Play are widely produced across the country at professional theatres, college campuses, and non-traditional spaces alike. He’s been honored to receive developmental support from institutions like The Kennedy Center, The Eugene O’Neill Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, and The Playwrights’ Center.

    In addition to the recently released poetry collection Can I Kick It?, he’s had several publications from Haymarket Books including Inauguration co written with nico wilkinson, Human Highlight: Ode To Dominique Wilkins, and the play This Is Modern Art co-written with Kevin Coval. He’s appeared on HBO Def Poetry, Sesame Street, NPR, BBC Radio, and the Discovery Channel.

    Passionate about cultivating new audiences in the arts, Goodwin served two seasons as Producing Artistic Director at StageOne Family Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky. He actively serves on both the advisory boards of Theatre for Young Audiences USA and Children’s Theatre Foundation Association.

    Idris is the newly appointed Director of The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, where he taught in the department of Theatre and Dance and was voted Teacher of the Year in 2015.

    A catalyst for culture, Goodwin uses his full creative powers to galvanize people to the community square. He is a creative voice for change, impassioned by art for social good.

  • Brett Egan

    Keynote Speaker

    Brett Egan

    President, DeVos Institute of Arts Management

    Brett Egan provides planning and training services for arts and culture organizations in the United States and around the world. He specializes in strategic planning; succession planning; capital campaigns; annual fundraising; fundraising campaigns; community-based practice; human resource development; board development; and institutional and programmatic marketing.

    In his capacity as President of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, Mr. Egan has led two multiyear capacity building initiatives with support from the Ford Foundation, working to empower community-based organizations from Ajo, Arizona and Anchorage, Alaska to Providence and Miami. From 2015-17, he oversaw the nation’s largest capacity building initiative to date, a two-year partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies providing training and consultation for 262 organizations in Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston. He has led regional training intensives in Portland, San Jose, Orlando, Rural Oregon, and Grand Rapids; a one-year initiative serving fifteen spoken word organizations in partnership with Youth Speaks; and has delivered multiyear, first-of-their-kind training programs in Ireland, Croatia, Trinidad and Tobago, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom in partnership with governments and local arts leadership.

    In Washington, D.C., he leads, with Michael M. Kaiser, a three-year intensive Fellowship for arts leaders, which has now engaged managers from over forty countries. Mr. Egan is the co-author, with Michael M. Kaiser, of The Cycle: A Practical Approach to Managing Arts Organizations (2013).

    Mr. Egan is a frequent guest at national and international conferences, speaking on a range of topics from audience engagement and fundraising to the role and impact of new media in arts management today. He regularly facilitates discussions amongst diverse stakeholders on behalf of regional and national foundations to identify common interest and deliver strategic direction, often at the intersection of cultural practice and broader civic concerns.

    Mr. Egan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Cultural and Performance Theory, received the Antarctic Service Medal and a Princess Grace Fellowship (Monaco), and wrote a travel guide on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. He is a trained actor and theater director and, throughout his upbringing in Long Beach, California, studied classical piano theory and performance. He and his wife, Joan, and daughter, Bell, live in Asheville, North Carolina.

  • Alex Coulombe

    Keynote Speaker

    Alex Coulombe is a NYC-based architect turned XR-chitect who has been crafting immersive experiences for over 10 years. After co-founding a theater group in college that produced many of his original shows (WhAT, now in its 15th year at Syracuse University), Alex received his B. Arch and proceeded to work at several architecture firms before landing at Fisher Dachs Associates: Theatre Planning and Design. There, Alex honed his craft in the design of powerful theatrical spaces. In 2013 he began working with VR using the Oculus Rift DK1 and developed the world’s first robust virtual reality system for evaluating theatre sightlines. Soon he expanded this system to utilize virtual reality in everything from the dome projection layout for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, to testing actor blocking, set design, lighting, and seating options for Kenneth Branagh’s production of Macbeth at the Park Avenue Armory.

    Before long, Alex formed Agile Lens, a creative studio focused on developing custom XR content for architecture, the arts, as well as prototyping for such forward-thinking companies as Intel, Samsung, Magic Leap, and Epic Games. Architecture projects have included: The Shed, David Geffen Hall, and the Statue of Liberty Museum. In 2018 Agile Lens began to create live and standalone theatrical XR pieces, including That Kind of Guy (premiere at the 2019 TCG National Conference and now available on Magic Leaps everywhere), and Ghosted (award-winner at North Bend Film Festival and the NYC Media Lab Summit). Under the title “Alive in Plasticland,” Agile Lens and partners spent two years studying live performance in VR, culminating in Loveseat. An official selection of the 2019 Venice Film Festival, Loveseat was directed by Kiira Benzing with Alex designing the virtual theatre, set, props, and lighting, seen live during each performance simultaneously in Venice and in VR headsets around the world. Follow Alex on Twitter and Youtube @iBrews.

  • Deborah Wicks La Puma

    Keynote Panelist

    A composer, music director and orchestrator, Deborah Wicks La Puma is one of the most produced Theatre for Young Audiences artists working today. With bestselling children’s author Mo Willems she has created Elephant and Piggie’s: We Are In A Play; Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience; and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus: The Musical. Her many and diverse works with playwright Karen Zacarías include Ella Enchanted (based on the book by Gail Carson Levine), Olivério: A Brazilian Twist, Frida Libre, Looking for Roberto Clemente and Einstein Is a Dummy. With playwright Adam Tobin she created She Persisted (based on the book by Chelsea Clinton), and the upcoming What Do You Do With An Idea? (based on the book by Kobi Yamada).  Her adult works include the lyric opera Dakota Sky and the Mexican folk musical Perdita (based on Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale) with Kathleen Cahill. She received her MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, and studied folk music with ethnomusicologist Alfredo López Mondragón. Her honors include the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, an NEA New American Works Grant, two Parents’ Choice Awards, and a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Musical Adaptation. A proud Mexican-American and “Navy brat” who grew up in Brazil, Portugal and California, La Puma is a member of TYA USA/ASSITEJ, ASCAP and The Dramatists Guild. Mother to three daughters and Mimi the Cat, La Puma lives in Southern California with her PR agent and loving husband, Chris.

  • Khalia Davis

    Keynote Panelist

    Khalia Davis is a multidisciplinary artist from the San Francisco/Bay Area now living in New York. BA in Theater Arts from the University of Southern California. Directed new works with prominent theaters such as Atlantic Theater Company’s Atlantic for Kids, New York City Children’s Theater, Bay Area Children’s Theater and more. Ms. Davis currently teaches with New York City Children’s Theater, the Atlantic Acting School, and for Disney Theatrical Group leading music and movement workshops and facilitating audience and community engagement. She is also an Artistic Associate for the nationally-known arts education organization The Story Pirates. As a performer, she has worked regionally and toured nationally on both coasts. Recently awarded the 2019 Emerging Leader Fellowship with TYA/USA and the NYCCT Leader Fellowship for 2019/2020. To learn more about Ms. Davis, check her out at www.khaliashdavis.com!

  • Adam Tobin

    Keynote Panelist

    Adam Tobin is the writer and lyricist of She Persisted: The Musical, composed by Deborah Wicks La Puma and adapted from Chelsea Clinton’s children’s book for Bay Area Children’s Theatre. The show’s off-Broadway production at the Atlantic Theatre Company was a New York Times Critics’ Pick in February 2020. A Senior Lecturer teaching screenwriting at Stanford University, Tobin created the television series About a Girl and Best Friend’s Date for Viacom’s The-N network (now TeenNick), won an Emmy for writing on Discovery Channel’s Cash Cab, and worked in script development for Jim Henson Pictures and The National Basketball Association. He has taught story seminars to Dreamworks Animation, Aardman Animation, and Blue Sky Studios. Tobin also performed with Los Angeles Theatresports and the comedy group The But Franklies, and was a founding member of the Stanford Improvisors. He lives in Northern California with his brilliant wife Amy and his “please don’t write about me in your bio” kids Charlie and Tessie. Tobin and Wicks La Puma’s next piece, What Do You Do With an Idea? is now in development with Bay Area Children’s Theatre.

  • Alan S. Brown

    Keynote Speaker

    Alan Brown, principal of WolfBrown, is a leading researcher and management consultant in the arts and culture sector worldwide. His work focuses on understanding consumer demand for cultural experiences and on helping cultural institutions, foundations and agencies to see new opportunities, make informed decisions and respond to changing conditions. His studies have introduced new vocabulary to the lexicon of cultural participation and propelled the field towards a clearer view of the rapidly changing cultural landscape. He speaks frequently at national and international conferences about audience behaviors, trends in cultural participation, and the value system surrounding arts experiences.

  • Dennie Palmer Wolf

    Keynote Speaker

    Dr. Dennie Palmer Wolf, Principal Researcher at WolfBrown, is one of the leading arts education researchers and evaluators in the United States. She holds a doctorate from Harvard where she served as a researcher at Project Zero for more than a decade and then headed Harvard PACE, an initiative linking schools and external partners in new approaches to assessing student learning.  She led studies on the early development of artistic and symbolic capacities and later focused on design, implementation, and evaluation strategies that help cultural organizations and communities examine and improve how people gain access to learning, culture, and creativity both in and outside of formal institutions. Nationally, Wolf has helped a number of city-wide and regional consortia build coordinated systems that support critical and creative learning for young people in and out of school time, in cities as varied as Boston, Chicago, Dallas, and Portland, OR. Based on this work, Wolf conducted a strategic review of all aspects of arts education for the National Endowment for the Arts. She was a three-term appointee to the National Assessment Governing Board, the federal agency that measures student learning nationally. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for Arts, the U.S. Department of Education, the Buck, Arnold, Carnegie, Mellon, Spencer, and William Penn foundations, and has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals and books.

  • Edie Demas

    Keynote Moderator

    Dr. Edie Demas is a cultural sector leader who is active in the performing arts, film, media and arts education networks locally, nationally and internationally. Edie’s work is primarily rooted in multi-disciplinary community, family and arts education programming as well as professional development/mentorship for artists, educators, and teaching artists. She is currently working as a consultant, independent producer, and writer. Special interests include immersive storytelling and new technologies in TYA; program design, research and evaluation; artist services, mentorship and professional development; and systemic strategies for developing new work, particularly in pursuit of supporting new voices and under-represented storytellers.

    Most recently, Edie served as Executive Director of the Jacob Burns Film Center outside of New York City. While there she expanded its family programming; brokered successful national partnerships and funding for the organization’s groundbreaking visual literacy/digital storytelling programs; launched an artist services production and fellowship initiative for emerging makers; and designed new strategies to explore the emerging fields of technology, immersive storytelling, exhibition and audience engagement. She has been recognized by 914INC  for her innovation and business impact in the regional non-profit cultural sector and received a Responsible 100 Award from City and State Media, honoring New York’s most outstanding thought leaders and influencers for inclusive leadership and transformative change. Prior to joining the JBFC, Edie worked with LA’s Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts where she advised on mission, vision, and strategy; designed a range education programs for folks of all ages and stages; and collaborated on artistic programs, commissions, and presentations. Before heading west, Edie served as the Director of Education at NYC’s New Victory Theater from 2001 to 2010. Under her direction, the Theater’s education programs were honored with the Americans for the Arts annual award for Arts Education. In addition, Edie spent several years in Ireland, where she worked as Education Officer with the Graffiti Theatre Company, founded UnReel, an international film festival for young people, developed scripts for children’s film and television, served as content creator for national K – 12 curricula in Drama and Film/Media Arts and as an Associate Artist for Education and Outreach at The Abbey Theatre. Edie holds an MA and PhD from NYU’s Program in Educational Theatre, where she has also held positions as a teaching fellow; theatrical, festival and conference producer; and as an adjunct faculty member.

  • Trusty Sidekick Theater Company

    Artist Provacateur

    Trusty Sidekick Theater Company creates bold, original productions for young people and their families. Rooted firmly in the belief that kids deserve high-quality theater that ignites their imaginations and makes them think about the world in a new way, an ensemble of multi-disciplinary artist-educators partner with the target audience as dramaturges in arts education workshops that fuel the artists’ development in the rehearsal room. TSTC often partners with a cultural organization in NYC or beyond to theatrically activate a historical space, reach new audience demographics, and innovate the form of theater for young audiences. Our cultural partners include Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Classic Stage Company, Park Avenue Armory, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The New Victory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Miami Theater Center, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and Seattle Children’s Theatre. Commissions by Lincoln Center of multi-sensory work designed specifically for audiences on the autism spectrum (Up and Away, Campfire) have garnered international attention for TSTC’s hallmark of keeping the audience in mind when creating every element of a show.

    We envision a theatrical landscape in the USA that values theatre for young audiences with the aesthetic rigor, depth of artistry, and patronage akin to theater made for adults. We strive to share stories that envision a world fit for the heroes we know our audiences will grow up to be. And we strive to create experiences that encourage families, classrooms, and young people to imagine and play together, extending engagement beyond the aesthetic experience of plays.

    To learn more and get involved, visit us online:
    Web: trustysidekick.org
    Facebook: facebook.com/TrustySidekickTheater
    Instagram: @trustysidekicktheater

    Now through June 30, 2020, have a Sidekick “Play”Date!

    Trusty Sidekick is pleased to offer FREE streaming of our archival videos for families and classrooms to enjoy over and over again! Enrich your experience with a peek behind the scenes and creative mini-class with Sidekick Studio.

    As theater artists, we always prefer to be in the room with our audience…but until that’s possible again, we’re devising ways to engage in art and community from afar and to provide you with adventurous, bold content — right in your living room!

    Are you ready? Let’s go! www.trustysidekick.org

  • Art Apart Together

    Artist Provocateur

    Join us and all conference attendees for a flash devising project! Off The Page will lead you–You’ll get a prompt  and you respond to it in THREE lines (or fewer!) Tune in at the close of the conference to see a video premiere of the new script we all create collaboratively from your responses. Optional choreography component in breakout rooms at the end of the day Thursday.

     

    We are theatre makers! We are artists! We are teachers! We work with artists, actors, and students to create new works. And we do that in community with one another. Which usually means we do it together in the same physical space. But, in these uncharted, separated times, we can’t. But-we are theatre makers! We are artists! We are teachers! So, we throw ideas up in the air, we flow with change, we bend in the wind and we KEEP MAKING ART.

Virtual Performances

An exciting showcase of exclusive recordings of TYA productions will offer attendees the opportunity to experience a range of work happening in TYA across the United States and beyond, including:

  • The Girl Who Swallowed A Cactus

    Metro Theater Company - St. Louis, MO

    Metro Theater Company’s The Girl Who Swallowed A Cactus by Eric Coble

    When school is out, there’s nothing to do and the desert sun beats down hot. So when a walking, talking and surprisingly well-dressed coyote shows up, Sheila and her friends jump at the chance to embark on the adventure of a lifetime! Filled with magical realism and surprises at every turn, this funny story of friendship and imagination brings the desert landscape to life. A cautionary tale about our impact on the environment and the creatures who live in it, this is a storytelling tour-de-force in a new, original play. This piece was workshopped by Metro Theater Company in April 2018 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of New Visions/New Voices 2018.

  • And In This Corner...Cassius Clay

    Metro Theatre Company

    Written by Idris Goodwin

    Directed by Julia Flood

     

    There are two kinds of fighters; those who fight for themselves, and those who stand up for those who can’t. Before he became “The Greatest”, Muhammad Ali was just a boy named Cassius Clay growing up in Jim Crow Louisville, KY. In a rage over a stolen bicycle, 12-year-old Cassius meets the white cop who will be his first boxing coach on the way to Olympic glory. A true story of courage, conscience and community.

  • The Boy at the Edge of Everything

    Trusty Sidekick Theater Company

    Written by Finegan Kruckemeyer

    Directed by Jonathan Shmidt Chapman

     

    In the middle of his over-scheduled 12-year-old life, Simon Ives dreams of a place where he can just stop and think. Meanwhile, at the farthest point of the universe, The Boy at the Edge of Everything lives by himself, lonely and bored. When Simon is rocketed into space (through an unlikely series of events involving “lots and lots of fireworks”), their worlds collide and neither will ever be the same. Follow Simon on an epic adventure through space and time in this quirky and charming play.

  • Emil and the Detectives

    Slingsby Theatre Company

    By ErichKästner, adapted for the Stage by Nicki Bloom

     

    Never underestimate the determination of a child! Young Emil catches a train to visit family in the big city. Something valuable is stolen. But the thief soon discovers Emil was not such an easy target. A group of quick-thinking and resourceful children rallies around. Can a bunch of kids work together to uncover and outsmart the true criminal? Kästner’s 1929 novella is more than a ‘good romp’, it broke ground for the independent-children-versus-devious-adults story genre. Streetwise city kids, a hard-working single mother and Emil’s past brush with the law add grit and nuance to this satisfying tale. How do we find our friends in the world? How do we work together to defeat tricksters?

  • The World Inside Me

    Spellbound Theatre

    A co-production with Chicago Children’s Theatre

    Directed by Lauren Jost

    Music by Jono Waldman

     

     

    “The World Inside Me” is a musical, sensory celebration of the human body. Explore cells, senses, intestines, and each of our unique selves through this delightful new musical for the youngest audiences.

  • Gretel!

    Theatre Heroes

    Written by Jason Tremblay and Suzan Zeder

    Music by Jenn Hartmann Luck

    Lyrics by Jenn Hartmann Luck, Suzan Zeder, & Jason Tremblay

     

    Before there was Hansel, there was Gretel! Based on the Russian source that is the origin story of the tale, this musical focuses on the girls and women at the center of the adventure. Featuring folk/rock music, the songs capture the darkness but also the humor and humanity of Gretel’s journey to fetch the skull of undying light from Baba Yaga, one of the most fascinating witches of all time. On her way, Gretel meets the Black Knight, who holds the secrets of the stars in his cloak, and three horsemen, who carry the sun across the sky. Once Gretel reaches Baba Yaga’s hut on chicken legs, she confronts the witch. Baba Yaga sets three impossible tasks for Gretel to complete in exchange for the skull. In the tasks, Gretel discovers the positive power of her anger, the comfort of her compassion, the gift of her grief, and the truth of her own birthright, as she teaches herself how to survive.

  • Andi Boi

    Dallas Children's Theatre

    Written and Directed by Bruce R. Coleman

    As more and more young people are coming to terms with gender identity and transitioning, there is a need for resources that can encourage conversation and understanding in a safe and open environment. Dallas Children’s Theater is pleased to add this topic to its series of internationally-recognized teen issue plays. Andi is a transgender teen entering his first day of school identifying as a male. Former classmates recall his last name when they hear it, but there is something different about Andi that keeps the dots from connecting clearly in their minds. Soon his new teachers, classmates, and his classmates’ parents will figure it out. How will they react? With aggression? With compassion? With confusion? Inspired by one teen’s journey, ANDI BOI is told with a sensitivity towards Andi and uses wit, heart, and warmth to help audiences find their way to greater compassion and awareness. Post-show conversations with subject matter resources will follow every performance.

  • She Persisted: The Musical (Selections)

    Bay Area Children's Theatre

    Written by Adam Tobin
    Music by Deborah Wicks La Puma
    Adapted from the Book Written by Chelsea Clinton
    Directed by Khalia Davis

    This new musical, inspired by Chelsea Clinton’s best-selling book, She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World, tells the story of a fourth-grade girl whose trip with her class to the museum turns into an adventure in time travel during which she meets inspirational women who are overcoming barriers and making history.

  • Kid Prince & Pablo

    The Kennedy Center

    Kid Prince and Pablo
    Presented by The Kennedy Center
    By Brian Quijada
    New Music by Marvin Quijada
    Directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh

    Mark Twain’s classic The Prince and the Pauper is reimagined as a digital age American Hip Hop story by playwright Brian Quijada, with direction by Pirronne Yousefzadeh, and new music by Marvin Quijada. In the divided Capital City, the ruling class called The Promised has banned rap and dance after an attempted revolution by the progressive New Wave people. Royal Kid Prince is set to inherit the throne – until he meets Pablo, a New Wave Drummer who performs for underground rap battles. When the two switch identities, mayhem and confusion follow – but by standing in one another’s shoes, Kid Prince and Pablo unearth discoveries that could start a whole new revolution.

  • The Smartest Girl in the World

    Childsplay

    THE SMARTEST GIRL IN THE WORLD

    by Miriam Gonzales

    Directed by Debra K. Stevens

    This heartfelt, warm, and witty play by Miriam Gonzales tells the story of Leo and Lizzy Martinez, latch-key children of hardworking parents. Leo is convinced that winning a local TV quiz show and becoming “the smartest kids in the world” can really change things for their family. But when their parents refuse to let Leo participate, Lizzy decides to grow up, step up and rescue the plan—and her family—along the way.

Schedule

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Our 2020 Sponsors

We thank our generous sponsors for their support of the 2020 TYA/USA Virtual Festival & Conference.

The TYA organizations and individuals below made it possible for TYA/USA to offer an Access for All option for the 2020 Festival & Conference.

ORGANIZATIONS

Alliance Theatre • Adventure Theatre MTC • Adventure Stage Chicago • Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre • Carolina Theatre of Durham • Children’s Theatre of Charlotte • Children’s Theatre Foundation of America • Children’s Theatre of Madison • Childsplay, Inc. • Collective Consciousness Theatre • Coterie Theatre • Dallas Children’s Theatre • First Stage • The Flea Theater • Hartwick College • Imagination Stage • iTheatrics • The Kennedy Center • Kids And Then Some (KATS) • Metro Theater Company • Miami Theater Center • New Victory Theater • New York City Children’s Theater • Northwestern University • Omaha Theater Company (The Rose) • Orlando Rep • Saratoga Children’s Theatre • Seattle Children’s Theatre • The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati • The Magik Theatre • The University of Texas at Austin • Wheelock Family Theatre at Boston University

 

INDIVIDUALS

Anonymous • Jody Drezner Alperin • Megan Alrutz • Sandra Asher • Julia Ashworth • Wendy Bable • Tara Bailey • Jahnna Beecham • Mara Richards Bim • Dylan Bollinger • Steve Braddock • Kate Bryer •Laura Gallagher Byrne • Mina Casmir • Bridget Cavaiola • Gloria Bond Clunie • Elisabeth Cooper • Christine Cox • Nathan Corliss • Vicky Finney Crouch • Bob Evans • Teresa Fisher • Moses Goldberg • Lisa Schreiner Goss • Stephen Hurst • Xan Johnson • Autumn Kersey • Jenny Anne Koppera • Armina LaManna • Jenn Hartmann Luck • Noel James • Min Kahng • Starry Krueger • J. Casey Lane • Patrick Lord • Lysna Marzani • Kat Matassarin • Sarah McCarthy • Michael McDonough • Gillian McNally • Nina Meehan • Michael Pisaturo • Betsy Quinn • Megan Ann Rasmussen • Helane Rosenberg • James Saba • Roxanne Schroeder-Arce • Lynda Sharpe • Todd Siff • Sara Simons • Laura Smith •  Rebeca Wallin • Susan Wood • Tae Hoon Yoo • Suzan Zeder

  • 3 Days
  • 1000+ Attendees
  • 10 Performances