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.

Since joining Ů��AV in 1986, Clark became a cornerstone of the university’s history department, known for his engaging lectures, sharp wit and passion for storytelling. Throughout his nearly four decades at UCF, Clark taught thousands of students, from large introductory courses to intimate honors seminars.

According to his former department chair John Sacher, “Jim was an excellent colleague and an outstanding teacher. He was passionate about the success of his students, the history department and UCF. He was a people-person who genuinely cared about others. And, he did all of the above with an unrivalled sense of humor.”

A scholarship fund has been created in Clark’s name. Make a gift at .

In addition to teaching at UCF, Clark spent over 30 years in journalism, including at the Orlando Sentinel and Orlando Magazine. He was also a familiar face on News 6, offering political analysis with characteristic humor and insight. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Washington Monthly, The Nation and the Miami Herald. His work has been honored by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, the Florida Magazine Association and the Florida Historical Society.

His face was familiar to many for his work with WUCF, where he helped bring Central Florida’s history to life through his contributions to both Central Florida Roadtrip and Florida Road Trip. Clark allowed the community and future generations to see Central Florida through his eyes through his contributions to Central Florida Roadtrip and Florida Road Trip, says Jennifer Cook, executive director of WUCF.

“From the very first season of WUCF’s Central Florida Roadtrip, Dr. Clark brought history to life with energy and depth that made every story memorable,” Cook says. “Nearly a decade later, his relationship with WUCF continued through to the most recent season of Florida Road Trip, where he remained a trusted voice sharing his knowledge on the people and places that shaped our community.”

Clark authored 11 books on Florida history, including Red Pepper and Gorgeous George: Claude Pepper’s Epic Defeat in the 1950 Democratic Primary, A History Lover’s Guide to Florida and, most recently, Lost Attractions. His work made him a popular speaker across the state. In his last few months, he served as the keynote speaker at a Tallahassee celebration of the 125th anniversary of Claude Pepper’s birth, and he had been invited to deliver the main address at the Florida Council for Social Studies. He was also a very popular lecturer for the Florida Humanities Council.

Careers often follow an arc, says Jeff Moore, dean of the UCF College of Arts and Humanities, and in Clark’s case, his impact only grew with time. He never lost the spark of engagement or the joy of learning. He was always asking questions, always publishing, always teaching at the highest level.

“He was a people person in every sense of the word, and that translated beautifully into his teaching.” — Jeff Moore, dean of the UCF College of Arts and Humanities

“Jim Clark was my friend for over 30 years and a model of what you hope for in a faculty member. His depth of knowledge as a Central Florida historian was extraordinary. But what truly set Jim apart was how that knowledge was rooted in his connection to people. He was a people person in every sense of the word, and that translated beautifully into his teaching. He positively impacted everyone he met, usually with a bit of his trademark humor mixed in.”

Ů��AV plans to honor Clark with a campus tribute, inviting his many friends on campus and in the Central Florida community to share memories and reflections. As the university community mourns his loss, it also celebrates the indelible mark he left on Florida’s historical landscape and the hearts of those who knew him.

Celebration of Life

Join us as we celebrate the life and legacy of James C. Clark on Thursday, April 16 from 5–8 p.m. at the Live Oak Event Center on main campus.

A scholarship fund has been created in his name. Make a gift at .

In this series, musician and WUCF FM producer Jesse Morgado gets an in-depth look inside the lives of professional musicians. Side Player Stories offers other conversations with musical guests such as guitarist/bassist Carol Kaye (You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin,’ Mission Impossible, La Bamba, etc,), keyboardist Carey Frank ’13 (Tedeschi Trucks Band and Social Distortion); and bassist Eva Gardner (Pink, Cher, Mars Volta), whose unique talents and musical abilities create opportunities to make their living playing for many different bands.

“As Central Florida’s Storytellers, we are proud to give our listeners an inside look at the life of professional musicians, some of the best in the industry, with our new podcast Side Player Stories,” says Phil Hoffman, WUCF executive director. “Listeners will learn the fascinating details on touring, recording, and what’s in between, all through the words and experiences of some of the music industry’s elite artists.”

In the first episode, Billy Joel’s former drummer for 30 years, DeVitto tells all in his new memoir. Later in July, bassist, recording artist, songwriter and Los Angeles bar owner Eva Gardner, who has toured with Pink for 14 years and has made a name for herself as a first-call musician for countless artists, talks about her inspiration and the talent in her household. After that will be Jeff Coffin, saxophonist in the Dave Matthews Band.. Coffin has also been a part of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones – racking up three Grammy Awards along the way.

New videos feature a mental-health counselor, youth helper, line worker and scientist who discusses the importance of vaccines. Previous videos in the series explained the importance of firefighters, police officers, teachers, doctors, paramedics, meteorologists and 9-1-1 operators.

The videos, aimed at children 3 to 8, air on WUCF TV between programming, and are available on and the . They are also available free to public media stations across the country for broadcasting in their communities.

“The Meet the Helpers initiative continues to tell the stories of the heroes in our communities across the country,” says. Phil Hoffman, WUCF executive director. “These videos and activities show children and families the importance of helpers and how to be a helper to others.”

In addition to community helpers, WUCF also produced videos in the series to help families understand the coronavirus and wearing masks.

Meet the Helpers is developed by WUCF and national experts in early childhood development from the UCF College of Community Innovation and Education, and crisis communications from the UCF Nicholson School of Communication and Media.

The project is part of WUCF’s outreach following the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016. Meet The Helpers is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Duke Energy, and the Paul B. and Constance D. Hunter Foundation.

To learn more about the latest videos from Meet the Helpers visit .

GRR-IFIC Neighbors with Daniel Tiger! will air Feb. 27 and 28 at 8:30 and 10 a.m. Viewers can join Daniel Tiger and his friends as they celebrate what it means to be a caring neighbor.

All month, fans can download or pick up a kindness kit that includes at-home activities for celebrating kindness and what it means to be a caring neighbor. Kits can be printed at home or picked up at a local library while supplies last. Visit to print the kit or find out a location for pickup.

WUCF will host two interactive Virtual LIVE PBS KIDS events that explore the world using the senses on Feb. 11 and 13 at 10 a.m. Both sessions include videos and hands-on activities. A downloadable participant kit is available that includes gather-at-home materials and printables for the event. Registration is required by signing up at .

“Even if we can’t be out interacting with the community for Be My Neighbor Day as we normally do, WŮ��AV is happy to continue sharing Daniel Tiger’s message on how to be a caring neighbor and sharing kindness through our locally produced show, virtual events and activities,” says Phil Hoffman, WUCF’s executive director. “As Central Florida Storytellers, WUCF continues to encourage curiosity and learning through our virtual Be My Neighbor Day event.”

Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood is one of PBS’ most popular animated programs and airs weekdays at 10 a.m. and weekends at 7:30 a.m. on WUCF.

In this one-hour weekly program, Rupert, a saxophonist, composer, record producer and recording artist, will present the stories of how jazz is deeply connected to conveying the history of America and will demonstrate how jazz tells those stories.

“WŮ��AV is Central Florida’s Storyteller as well as providing Orlando’s jazz soundtrack,” says Phil Hoffman, WUCF executive director. “We are honored to work with Jeff Rupert on Jazz and the American Spirit as it embodies our mission of preserving and advancing the jazz art form to our Central Florida audience.”

Listeners can view the radio schedule at .

Florida has had a far-reaching effect on the presidency dating all the way back to George Washington, before the region was even a state. The film, written and produced by WUCF veteran television journalist Buddy Pittman ’74 and senior lecturer Clark, looks at the long-standing connection between the state and the White House.

The 50-minute documentary examines the environmental efforts spearheaded by several president, the space program, and landmark political moments that occurred here, including Richard Nixon’s Watergate “I am not a crook” speech and George W. Bush’s Sept. 11, 2001, press conference following the World Trade Center attack. The film also uncovers some of the little-known Florida stories that have involved presidents.

Clark wrote the book in 2016 as the presidential campaign got underway.

“I had worked with Buddy Pittman on the [WUCF] Road Trip series for several years and when I suggested a documentary, Buddy embraced it,” Clark says. “We realized we had tremendous resources on campus.”

Appearing in the documentary with Clark, who is the author of nine books, are UCF faculty members Amy Foster, Barbara Gannon, David Head, David Morton ’14MA ’19PhD, and Lori Walters.

The film is narrated by long-time CBS News radio reporter Peter King, who is known for his coverage of NASA and the space industry.

“WUCF has dedicated itself to telling community stories as Central Florida’s Storytellers. It’s our commitment to the community to educate, engage and inspire through our content,” says Phil Hoffman, WUCF executive director. “Presidents in Florida comes at an interesting time in history, with Florida taking a major role.”

, in partnership with local organizations will provide an update from community leaders on the lasting effects of the pandemic.

During the show, WUCF executive director Phil Hoffman speaks with representatives of Central Florida arts, culture, history and science organizations about plans to operate in the post-COVID-19 era.

“Central Florida organizations have demonstrated their resilience and creativity during this historic time in our community” says Hoffman. “As Central Florida’s storytellers, WUCF wants to make sure they are seen and heard while navigating this new way of doing business.”

Series guests include Cole NeSmith, founder and CEO of Creative City Project; Jim Helsinger, artistic director of Orlando Shakespeare Theater; Terry Olson, chief instigator at Fusion Fest; Lindsay Taylor, theatre producer at Orlando Fringe Festival; and Lisa Bachman, assistant director of Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida.

In Reach will air Sunday mornings at 11:30 a.m..

During June, July and August, WUCF celebrated the Summer of Space with programming and community events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Programming included “” and its own one-hour documentary “.”

“We are truly grateful to be recognized by NETA for our work during the Summer of Space,” says Phil Hoffman, WUCF executive director. “As Central Florida’s Storytellers, the Summer of Space was the collaborative efforts of the WUCF team to tell the stories from our own backyard. We are honored to be recognized for our work within the Central Florida community on a national stage.”

The NETA Awards honor public television’s best work in education, community engagement, marketing/communications and content. Awards are judged by a group of expert panelists within the public media system, as well as industry professionals outside of public media.

UCF’s Nicholson School of Communication and Media and WUCF-TV partnered with Central Florida’s WMFE 90.7FM to bring the program to Orlando from April 29-May 3. Four of the six students selected to participate in Orlando’s “boot camp” were from UCF: journalism majors Hernández Caraballo and Monica Sealey; interdisciplinary studies major Rhyan Grant; and English major Emily Lang. The other two students were from Valencia College and Full Sail University.

NextGenRadio is a week-long “pop-up” digital journalism training experience. It is designed to give competitively selected participants interested in podcasting, audio storytelling, radio reporting and visual journalism the skills and opportunity to find and produce their own multimedia story. Each selected participant is paired with a professional journalist, and together they find, report and produce a non-narrated story as well as use stills and video to fill out their story.

The theme of the week’s stories was immigration, specifically “First Days in America.”

“We are fanning out around Central Florida to locate, capture and tell the stories of immigrants who have arrived here and are making a new life.” —Rick Brunson ’84, associate instructor in the Nicholson School

Rick Brunson ’84, associate instructor in the Nicholson School, represented the university in the partnership and is mentoring one of the students.

“We are fanning out around Central Florida to locate, capture and tell the stories of immigrants who have arrived here and are making a new life,” he says. “The training is highly structured with tutorials in audio reporting, web production, social media production, photography, video and more. Our stories will be richly layered, textured and multimedia in nature.”

Hernández Carabello, a junior, recounts that she had been in a car crash that left her unable to walk during the NextGenRadio application process. When she found out she was a finalist, she had a very short window of time to submit her story proposal.

“The program is intense and I knew the deadline had to be met — these are professionals. I had to step it up.” — Lillian Hernández Carabello, journalism student

“There I was, no car (just got wrecked), no way to walk or hardly move, no way to get up, put the work into it and get my story. But I wanted it,” Hernández Carabello says. “I hired a driver and went in my wheelchair and crutches and hobbled around downtown Orlando for hours until I found my story. I was outside a closed Starbucks leaching on their WiFi on my dying laptop trying to submit my pitch in on time. It was due at 11:59 p.m., I got it in at 11:41. The program is intense and I knew the deadline had to be met — these are professionals. I had to step it up. And, I guess, accident or not, that is the major challenge of the program, as well as its reward. Learning to be professional, timely, and focused enough to fit into the team and produce a story of the caliber of NPR.”

The stories are available to view and hear at . They will also air daily May 13-17 on WMFE 90.7FM at 6:44 a.m. and 8:44 a.m.

“I’m pleased and proud to be part of it—and more to see our students part of it,” says Brunson.