The realization hit him one day on the job. This project’s legacy and impact were going to outlive him.

“When I think back on every cool thing I’ve gotten to do so far in my career, it does all kind of lead back to Orlando Family Stage,” Lowe says.

Lowe was 6 years old when his cub scout troop attended a show at the stage, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary — the last 25 of those years in partnership with UCF.

He eventually went through its Youth Academy, interned as a UCF theatre student on site, made industry connections and now regularly contracts work at the stage as a full-time lighting designer for Clair Global, a tech company that specializes in live production services.

Lowe’s story is just one example of the countless ripple effects that have materialized from UCF’s longstanding, collaborative partnership with a nationally recognized leader in the theater industry.

“I’ve watched kids come in and they’re so shy and they can’t do anything. But by the time they leave, they’re not only signing up for the next show, they’re leading the next show,” says Paul Lartonoix, assistant dean for the College of Arts and Humanities and longtime Orlando Family Stage board member. “Sometimes it’s amazing at what it does. There’s no reason to not be proud of it. It’s doing great things for families. It’s doing great things for kids. It’s doing great things for our students, and it’s awesome that it’s being run by Knights.”

A Partnership That Builds Community

Orlando Family Stage, founded in 1926 as part of the City of Orlando’s Recreation Department, has evolved over the past 100 years while persevering through historic challenges including the Great Depression, World War II, the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.

UCF entered the picture in 2000 when former Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood and UCF President John C. Hitt formed a community coalition to bring the stage under UCF’s oversight. At the time, the theater needed a major overhaul — both to its physical home at Loch Haven Park and in programming — to ensure it could thrive in the new millennium.

“I know with great confidence we would not be sitting here today without UCF on board. We wouldn’t have survived.” — Chris Brown ’05, Orlando Family Stage executive director and UCF theatre alum

“We wanted it because we thought that space was an exceptional, it had tremendous potential, and UCF should be a part of it. That really was the driving force,” says Lartonoix, who served as executive director on-loan and was instrumental in leading the early years of the partnership. “And when things worked, it was fantastic.”

The intervention proved to be a major catalyst for its impact in the community today, and for the world at large through the countless children and UCF graduates who have been affiliated with its programming and education.

“I know with great confidence we would not be sitting here today without UCF on board. We wouldn’t have survived,” says Chris Brown ’05, Orlando Family Stage executive director and UCF theatre alum. “To think that leaders came together and said, ‘We don’t want to lose a vital theater organization in our town, and we want to create an active and engaged partnership with the university where we can collectively do good things to serve young people in the world.’ It’s very special.”

Florida’s Only Professional Theatre for Young Audiences

A major part of that partnership is UCF’s MFA in theatre for young audiences program, which launched in 2004. The program has operated for the past two decades as Florida’s only professional theatre for young audiences and is one of the most distinctive programs in the country with its unique graduate-training residency.

In addition to learning from the university’s esteemed faculty, students gain practical experience with opportunities to work with professional artists and teach in Orlando Family Stage’s award-winning Youth Academy, which offers camps, classes and experiences for every age level from infancy through teens.

The MFA program has seen graduates go on to work at some of the most prestigious theaters in the country, become educators at universities as far as Dublin and help run community theaters across the United States.

In addition to his leadership role, Brown teaches theatre management courses on UCF’s campus. He says he believes an important part of his responsibility as an educator is to expand his students’ idea of where a career in the arts can take them.

“We’re helping them recognize that arts administration is creative work,” he says. “Writing a grant narrative, crafting a brand voice, planning a touring route or stewarding a donor relationship all require the same storytelling skills they bring to performance and production roles.”

Instilling Bravery in Children

The stage’s mission is to empower young people to be brave and empathetic.

Sure it sounds good, but more importantly, there’s truth to the claim. Recent research by the UCF Department of Psychology provides evidence to support it.

The Orlando Family Stage’s education team collaborated with associate professor Valerie Sims and senior lecturer Matthew Chin and more than a dozen undergraduate students from the Applied Cognition and Technology Lab along with associate professor of musical theatre Tara Deady ’07MFA on a study, which they are currently working on publishing. The study aimed to determine if the stage’s programming delivers on its promise to promote creative engagement and bravery in children ages 1-5.

Because of the young age of the participants, traditional survey tools and written questionnaires wouldn’t work. The team needed to get creative in a research approach that matched how children experience theatre.

The research team meticulously observed second by second footage of children and parent engagement during performances of Yo, Ho, Ho! Let’s Go! — an interactive, multi-sensory original production created by the stage’s senior director of education Jennifer Adams-Carrasquillo ’11MFA.

“We have evidence that theater participation really is beneficial to these very young kids.” — Matthew Chin, Ů��AV psychology senior lecturer

They logged and quantified data through body language and audience responses. Early on, Sims and Chin say, children needed to be prompted by their parents to participate. However, as the show progressed, you can clearly see children initiating the participation on their own and parental involvement decreasing.

“With this study we are able to say that it isn’t just this thing that we think is true — we have evidence that theater participation really is beneficial to these very young kids,” Chin says.

In 2024-25 alone, more than 4,770 audience members attended Theatre for the Very Young productions like Yo, Ho, Ho! Let’s Go!. Multiply those numbers year after year and the impact to the youth in our community is monumental.

The Next 100 Years

As the stage commemorates this special milestone in its history, it also acknowledges the scope of possibilities and impact ahead.

This year, when Gershwin Entertainment Group, who owns the theatrical rights for A Charlie Brown Christmas, needed a national touring partner to bring the show to life on stage around the country, they turned to the Orlando Family Stage to deliver. It became the highest revenue-generating show in the history of the organizatoin’s performances in Orlando —without counting the 32 cities it visited from New York City to Vancouver, Canada.

A partnership with the UCF Department of History is enabling the stage to create an archive of its materials from the last century as part of the RICHES Mosaic Interface, an online resource dedicated to collecting and sharing the stories of Central Florida.

Another is the inaugural Florida Children’s Book Festival in partnership with Writer’s Block Book Store and WUCF, which they hosted in February and plan to host annually to celebrate literature and the link between books, storytelling and live theater.

“We all need to be aware of how special this place is. And we need to be so proud that our community has something like this.” — Chris Brown ’05, Orlando Family Stage executive director and UCF theatre alum

They look to expand the reach of Mind Matters, a program the stage initiated with UCF’s psychology department and national playwrights to produce 10 original short plays about geared for teens about depression, anxiety, loneliness, isolation and other mental health challenges they face today. The plays serve as an educational resource for teachers to spark honest conversations on these topics with their students.

Brown envisions one day expanding the footprint of the building with more theater space, new classrooms and offices to help alleviate their bursting-at-the-seems infrastructure, so they can keep delivering on all the dreams they want to turn into reality and continue creating meaningful experiences for children and the audiences of tomorrow.

“I can’t get past the energy and the faces of busloads of kids coming in here every day,” Brown says. “We all need to be aware of how special this place is. And we need to be so proud that our community has something like this.”

Celebrates the Arts Programming

You can catch live performances from the Theatre for Young Audiences program during April’s UCF Celebrates the Arts festival at the Dr. Phillips Center in downtown Orlando.

Thursday, April 2 – 7:30 p.m.
Hosted by Ashley Eckstein (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Her Universe, HypeFriend!), this concert features performances that span musical styles and theatrical traditions, reflecting the many creative paths that begin at Orlando Family Stage.

*Featuring Micheal James Scott (Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway), Leslie Carrera-Rudolph (Emmy Award-winning performer for Abby Cadabby, Sesame Street), Jack Griffo (Nickelodeon’s The Thundermans), Davis Gaines (Broadway’s longest running Phantom of the Opera), Michael Andrew (Composer and one of America’s greatest interpreters of the American Songbook), Paul Vogt (Broadway’s Hairspray and Chicago). Video appearances by Mandy Moore (This Is Us), Jasmine Forsberg (Broadway’s Six and Here Lies Love), Clayton and Bella Grimm (Blippi), Broadway legend Norm Lewis and more.

*Artist lineup is updating and is subject to change.

Tuesday, April 7 – 10 a.m.
When best friends Squiggle and Square move away from each other, they must find creative ways to keep communicating! Told through clowning, puppetry and music, Pen Pals is a 30-minute interactive play designed for 5 to 10-year-olds.

Saturday, April 11 – 10 a.m.
Yo, Ho, Ho! Let’s Go! is a 30-minute adventure designed especially for children ages 1 to 5 as a multi-sensory experience that invites them to help a pirate navigate the high seas. Together, they follow a treasure map, solve clues and chart the course forward.

“I think the play is really special because it shows that any child can find something unique about themselves even if it’s small, and the show deals with emotional regulation and the power of emotions,” says Tokach, who earned a bachelor’s degree in acting and directing before coming to UCF. “It gives kids a chance to see so many different emotions expressed on stage and know that it’s OK to express themselves.”

While young audiences and their parents will have a chance to see this for themselves at the April 10 showing of The Grumpiest Boy in the World at UCF Celebrates the Arts, these same concepts are constantly considered throughout the world of TYA.

“There is so much research about why the arts are important in childhood and I know just growing up in a small town it was just really rare to have a chance to express myself in that way or in any activities other than sports,” says Tokach, who is from Abilene, Kansas. “So I wanted to be able to provide that for other kids.”

For decades, studies have shown that the arts help boost academic performance, social skills, critical and creative thinking, emotional intelligence, self-esteem, and graduation rates. According to a 2016 survey by the Americans for the Arts organization, about 90% of adults consider the arts as a part of a well-rounded education from elementary through high school, and TYA plays a crucial role in sparking an interest that can benefit children for life.

A Key Partnership

In the United States there are 19 bachelor’s programs, eight master’s programs and just six MFA programs in TYA. UCF’s MFA program, which takes three years to complete and typically accepts cohorts of about six students every other year, is the only one that has a partnership with a local professional theatre.

UCF’s TYA MFA program is one of six the nation and the only one that has a partnership with a local professional theatre.

“Orlando Rep is Florida’s premiere professional theatre for young audiences and its history goes back to the 1920s as the Orlando Little Theatre,” says Elizabeth Brendel Horn ’10MFA, an assistant professor and graduate of UCF’s TYA program. “The organization has been through multiple iterations and names throughout the years and it was through the partnership [with UCF] that it became the Orlando Repertory Theatre — and specifically a professional theatre for young audiences. It’s very formation is a prime example of how the partnership has shaped both institutions and how it’s mutually beneficial.”

Since UCF’s TYA program launched in 2004, the nearly 35 graduates have all played multiple roles at the Orlando Rep, some — such as senior director of education Jennifer Adams ’11MFA and prop master Tara Kromer ’15MFA — even landed positions after graduation.

Knights have also left a mark on the Rep through experimental productions of their own creation. In 2020, the Rep premiered its first play for very young audiences, infants to 5-year-olds, with When Pigs Fly created by Maria Katsadouros ’18MFA. It is an interactive multisensory experience that follows a pig named Avery and his friends on the farm as they explore what it means to fly through the elements of play, discovery and whimsical movement. This innovative work is also part of the reason why Katsadouros is now the theatre and dance resource instructor for Orange County Public Schools.

“Maria started her play in her first semester in my puppetry course where she was terrified to design and build her own puppet, but she made a pig and I saw how every class after that the story grew and it eventually became her thesis,” says Vandy Wood, theatre associate professor and coordinator for the TYA program. “The curriculum is very effective in stimulating the students’ ideas and it’s designed to support their interest in what they’re developing.”

Training Teaching Artists

Many other TYA grads have gone on to work for school districts and theatre companies across the nation.

“One of the strengths that I’ve heard about our program is that the students are well-trained visually,” Woods says. “We really work hard to give them well-rounded professional theatre training in addition to the academic and teaching focus. I know one of our recent graduates is running a new program in Naples at a high school and he’s laughing because he’s having to design and build the sets, in addition to writing the music, and directing — all things we train our students to become professionals in.”

During Brendel Horn’s undergraduate studies, she says she didn’t realize that TYA was a field she could earn a master’s in, so her time at UCF really allowed her to see all that field could encompass.

“Many of our graduates do go on to teach full-time and all will have to teach at some point,” Brendel Horn says. “During their first semester they have to take Methods of Teaching Drama, so I’m really grateful they have that course. In some ways, it’s a very specific degree, but it’s also a degree we believe our students can apply in varying theatre careers, and in careers with the theme park industry, museums, schools, libraries, and more.”

Expanding TYA’s Reach

When Tokach came to Ů��AV in 2019, she knew from touring experiences with a children’s theatre company that she wanted to become an educational director. But what she’s learned through the program is that role looks different at every organization.

“This program has opened my mind to so many possibilities within the field,” she says. “I think this program has taught me a different way of looking at the world. When grappling with different questions and it’s not really about finding the right answer to anything, it’s about working collaboratively with your peers and kids, listening to their perspectives, and finding a way that we can all look at the world in a way that can help everyone.”

For The Grumpiest Boy in the World, Tokach and her team worked with United Cerebral Palsy to take the production live to four local schools, as well as record the play so other local UCP schools could view it. Through this process, she completed a workshop centered around accessibility and considers those lessons crucial for expanding TYA’s reach.

Arts funding across the nation has been dwindling through the years, with total public funding for the National Endowment for the Arts decreasing by 16% the past 20 years when adjusted for inflation, according to Grantmakers in the Arts. Faculty at UCF are finding that the interest and respect for TYA are growing. This year, more people have applied to the program than usual. Typically, the program has an assistantship or fellowship lined up for each student, but they’re planning to deviate from this tradition and extend their offers of admission to applicants who are willing to join the program without one.

“It’s hard to say why we had such a strong pool of applicants, but I think part of it is people going back to school during the pandemic, as well as our reputation,” says Julia Listengarten, artistic director and professor of theatre. “Our program provides a very strong combination of theoretical and practical courses, such as design and directing, our partnership with the Rep, as well as opportunities to engage in arts-based community projects, so there are many benefits for students outside of UCF-based teaching opportunities that students receive through their assistantships.”

This year, — a summer festival that launched in 2018 and is dedicated to developing works by emerging playwrights — is featuring its first TYA production with Sombra Del Sol (Shade of the Sun), which TYA student Ralph Krumins has developed with Ximena Gonzalez, music master’s student Daniela Monzon Villegas and Bianca Alamo ’20MFA.

“This is one more example of how the culture of the is incorporating theatre for young audiences in more of its programming — and our MFA students are leading the way,” Brendel Horn says.

The popularity of the production was recently exhibited when a morning festival performance of the Lois Lowry book was first offered exclusively to Central Florida schools for field trips. It quickly sold out.

A free evening performance open to the general public will be 7 p.m. April 13 at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Orlando.

The third annual festival April 7-14 features more than 1,000 university students and 100 faculty members showcasing presentations in theatre, dance, orchestra, choir, big band, chamber music, cabaret, concert bands, opera, visual arts, studio art, gaming, animation, photography and film. Tickets are free but are required for admission.

The Giver is one of two books to win Newbery Medals by Lowry, who has written more than 30 novels for children. The award is presented annually by the American Library Association for distinguished contribution to literature for children. She was recognized for Number the Stars in 1990 and The Giver in 1994, and she twice has been a finalist for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest award for creators of children’s books.

The Giver also was made into a 2014 movie starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep and Brenton Thwaites.

The book tells the story of 12-year-old Jonas, who lives in a world where everything is under control and safe. Everyone is eventually assigned a role, and it has become time that Jonas is chosen for special training by The Giver to be the only one to be the keeper of the memories of the community. Over time, Jonas discovers things aren’t as perfect as they seem, and what it means to grow up and take control of his own destiny.

The Orlando REP is home to the university’s MFA in Theatre for Young Audiences graduate program.

The Giver will be directed by graduate Tara Kromer, and feature design work by UCF faculty members Vandy Wood and Tan Huaixiang. Alumus Chris Brown is production manager and alumna Carrie Kasten Smith is assistant production manager. Two undergraduate alumni are working on the design team, Alyx Jacobs and Anthony Narciso.

The play includes strobe lights and is not suited for children younger than middle school.

This is part of a series of stories about the April 7-14 events at UCF Celebrates the Arts 2017. All events are free, but tickets are required for performances and entrance into the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 445 S. Magnolia Ave., Orlando. Ticketing and full schedule details are posted at .

“When I put on my three silver bracelets, I am transported back in time…into the world of my grandmother…”

“When I put on my swimsuit and goggles and start swimming, my Mom and Dad say I look like a fish…”

Young authors’ imaginations can be endless when they’re given the opportunity to create.

And a contest involving UCF’s Theatre for Young Audiences gives those budding writers the chance to see their stories come to life.

The project, called Writes of Spring, is a collaboration of graduate students in the Theatre UCF master’s program, the Orlando Repertory Theatre and students from the community in kindergarten through 12th grade.

This year’s assignment to the writers was to compose a short story, essay or poem finishing this intro: “When I put on _______.”

Out of about 1,300 entries submitted last fall, 114 winners were chosen in four different age groups to be woven into a story by student and already-veteran-scriptwriter Amanda Hill.

Performances will be May 1-2 at the Orlando Repertory Theatre, 1001 E. Princeton St., Orlando, with student Courtney Grile as director. This year’s production titled “if not now, when?” will include graduate and undergraduate theatre students as the actors. Others that have been key to the production are faculty adviser Vandy Wood; Gary Cadwallader, education director at Orlando Repertory Theatre; and sponsor Fifth Third Bank.

“The project strives to support literacy, critical thinking, and creative expression by transforming students’ words into a fully produced show,” Hill said. “Each poem, essay, and story is a piece of a huge jigsaw puzzle, which the creative team works to piece together.”

Joan Roxbury, a third-grade teacher at Lake Eola Charter School in downtown Orlando, said topics that deal with animals, friends, fantasy and adventure appeal to her young writers.

“The students often write about their own personal experiences that are important to them,” said Roxbury, who had compositions by nine of her students chosen this year for Writes of Spring. She said she also uses the project as an assignment to encourage her struggling writers to participate because they don’t see the one-page length as an overwhelming task.

“Writes of Spring gave them a chance to write about their dreams and wishes, and they loved that,” she said.

Hill said there were so many well-composed entries that it was hard to pick winners for the script.

“There was so much good material to choose from,” she said. “We can’t choose it all or the play would never end.”

Roxbury said she is grateful for the opportunity for her students’ works to be acted out on stage by the UCF theatre team.

“The Writes of Spring contest connected the theme of writing and acting together for my students, which was really great,” she said.

“I think celebrating their writing is a key motivational factor. When Writes of Spring indicated that they were going to use the stories in our class, the students were thrilled at the prospect of seeing their pieces come to life.”

Tickets for “if not now, when” are complimentary, but reservations for the May 1-2 productions are recommended by calling 407-896-7365, ext. 1 at the Orlando Repertory Theatre, 1001 E. Princeton St., Orlando. Both nights will have a kickoff celebration at 6:30 p.m., followed by the 7 p.m. performance and a reception.