YOUTHFEST AT AACTFEST
Celebrating the Next Generation of Theatre Artists
June 15–19, 2027
In 2027, YouthFest will take place as part of AACTFest, creating one shared national festival experience that brings together youth and adult theatre communities from across the country.
Participating youth theatres will perform, attend workshops, connect with fellow artists, and experience the excitement of AACT’s national festival alongside the broader community theatre community.
Why YouthFest?
YouthFest at AACTFest celebrates the creativity, energy, and talent of young theatre artists as part of AACT’s national festival experience.
Youth theatre groups have the opportunity to share their work, receive encouraging feedback, attend workshops, connect with peers, and experience the larger AACTFest community alongside theatre artists from across the country.
- Schools and youth theatre programs
- Community theatres with youth productions
- Educators, directors, and teaching artists
- Students who want to grow, perform, and connect
- Youth theatre performances
- Encouraging, learning-centered adjudication
- Workshops and festival activities
- Connection with the national community theatre network
Explore a Recent YouthFest
Looking for a real-world example of the YouthFest experience? Explore highlights, award recipients, photos, and video from YouthFest at AACTFest 2025 to get a feel for the performances, learning opportunities, and community connections that make YouthFest such a memorable experience.
Festival schedules, activities, and programming may vary by year. Information for upcoming festivals will be shared on their respective event pages.
Getting Started
YouthFest at AACTFest welcomes youth theatre groups from across the country to share their work, grow as artists, and participate in AACT’s national festival experience.
Participating companies may come through state and regional festival pathways or other approved application processes, depending on the festival year and structure. Additional participation details for YouthFest 2027 will be announced as they become available.
Participation information, application details, guidelines, and important dates for YouthFest 2027 at AACTFest will be posted as they become available.
Questions about participation or where to begin? Contact AACT at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help.
The Jack K. Ayre and Frank Ayre Lee Theatre Foundation
AACT YouthFest is made possible in part by a grant from the Jack K. Ayre and Frank Ayre Lee Theatre Foundation.
Jack K. Ayre celebrated his 90th birthday before passing away in December 2011. At his birthday party, he sang with a barbershop quartet, one of his favorite activities, and celebrated with his cousin and lifelong friend, Frank Ayre Lee.
Though as adults they lived on opposite sides of the country, the cousins kept in touch through letters that showed a love for the written word and an irreverent sense of humor. Jack participated in theatre productions at Drew University in New Jersey and at a community theatre in Connecticut in his younger years, and continued that interest when he moved to California. Mr. Lee was also an avid theatre supporter and dabbled in playwriting, adapting Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book for a children’s theatre production, and penning McSteg, a tongue-in-cheek discourse, ribbing his cousin Jack and based on a scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
The Jack K. Ayre and Frank Ayre Lee Theatre Foundation was created by the children of Frank Ayre Lee as a tribute to their father, who passed away in August 2012, and a legacy for the creative endeavors of Jack, who was an advertising executive and public relations director.
