Young Actors Theatre

Young Actors Theatre has been training kids and teenagers in Tallahassee since 1975, when it was founded by Tina Williams. The organization marked its 50th anniversary with a celebration at Florida State University in February 2025, and by its own description it is one of the nation’s few independent children’s programs with its own on site theater, meaning students are not just taking classes in a rented studio somewhere. They are rehearsing and performing in a facility the organization built and runs itself at 609 Glenview Drive on the north side of town.

The scale of the program is bigger than a typical community drama club tucked into a church basement. Young Actors Theatre says it serves more than 800 children ages 3 through 18 each year, with an audition based performing company of 120 students who take on the more demanding roles in mainstage productions throughout the season. Recent seasons have included full productions of The Little Mermaid, Honk!, Into the Woods, and Les Misérables, titles that require real vocal and technical range from a youth cast rather than a scaled down recital version of the same show.

Instruction covers acting, singing, dance, and film, taught by a staff the organization describes as experienced and professional caliber, with classes run in small groups rather than large lecture style sessions. The theater’s office keeps regular hours Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for enrollment, ticketing questions, and general business, while rehearsals and performances themselves happen across evenings and weekends throughout the year, fitting around the school schedules of the students who make up most of the company.

What makes Young Actors Theatre notable in Tallahassee’s arts landscape is not just the age of its students, it is the organization’s insistence on producing full length musicals and plays rather than shortened showcase versions. A cast of teenagers taking on Les Misérables or Into the Woods is a different commitment than a spring recital, and the theater’s own framing, that theatre skills are life skills, reflects a program built around using performance training to build confidence, public speaking ability, and resilience alongside stage craft itself. For families new to Tallahassee looking for a serious youth performing arts program, or for anyone curious where the next generation of the city’s community theater performers gets its start, Young Actors Theatre has been that pipeline for half a century now, independently run, locally founded, and still operating out of its own building rather than a shared civic space borrowed for the season.