Junior Academy

Rising Grades 6-9

Your Best Summer Starts Here:

Learn more below about our Daytime training program for rising 6th thru 9th graders, culminating in a fully-staged, live musical theatre production held at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, MD.

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OVERVIEW DATES SAMPLE SCHEDULE HEALTH & WELLNESS CLASSES LOCATION STAFF & FACULTY REGISTRATION ORIENTATION TUITION TUITION ASSISTANCE REGISTER FAQs PERFORMANCES

Highlights

  • Weekday mornings and weekends will be devoted to the musical theatre production:

    • Staging rehearsals

    • Choreography

    • Music rehearsals

  • Weekday afternoons will be spent in classes studying Acting, Dance, and Voice.

  • The culminating event will be a full scale musical theatre production, featuring:

    • Professional quality venue

    • Faculty-led stage direction, music direction, and choreography

    • Live audience of family, friends, and fans

    • Video of production will be captured and made available to friends and family.

YAA’s Junior Academy is an award-winning DAYTIME training program in Musical Theatre culminating in a fully-staged musical theatre production.

Junior Academy is a musical theatre intensive for the highly disciplined student seeking classes focused on artistic process PLUS the applied training of a full musical theatre production.

Open to rising 6th-9th graders.

Overview

2025 Dates

Program Dates:

Saturday, June 28 thru Thursday, July 10, 2025

  • Daily Monday thru Sunday:

    • 8:30am-4:00pm

    • Includes all classes, rehearsals, and performances

Deadlines:

Registration for the Junior Academy is due no later than Sunday, June 15, 2025 at 11:59pm EDT.

Classes

Junior Academy students will spend their half their day receiving combined Musical Theatre training in voice, acting, dance, and music theory with leading teachers in each discipline.

Classes may include:

  • Acting — improvisation, character development, and scene study

  • Dance — ballet, jazz, tap, modern, and hip-hop techniques

  • Voice — vocal technique, interpretation, music theory, and acting/movement for singers

Class sizes will remain small (14-16 students per class) to ensure personalized attention between teacher and students.

Performances

Weekday mornings and weekends will be devoted to the stage production, including:

  • Staging rehearsals

  • Choreography

  • Music rehearsals

Casting auditions for the production will take place in-person on the first day of the program.

2025 Production:

TBA

Sample Schedule

  • 8:00-8:30am: Arrival

  • 8:30am Morning Meeting (All)

  • 8:45am: Production Rehearsal Block #1

  • 9:45am: Production Rehearsal Block #2

  • 10:45am: Production Rehearsal Block #3

  • 11:45am: Lunch (All)

  • 12:30pm: Production Rehearsal Block #4

  • 1:30pm: Class Rotation #1

  • 2:15pm: Class Rotation #2

  • 3:00pm: Class Rotation #3

  • 3:45pm: Afternoon Meeting (All)

  • 4:00pm: Dismissal

Health & Wellness

The health, safety, and well-being of each student is our utmost priority.

YAA has a team of registered nurses on-site/on-call during our programs. We prioritize partnering with families to ensure that students are set up for success during their time in the program.

Families will be required to complete all health and prescription forms by the deadlines provided at registration.

The Performing Arts Center @ Good Counsel is located on the campus of the Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, MD.

The Good Counsel campus is conveniently located right of MD-200, and within 30 minutes from most of the DC/Baltimore metro areas.

The three-story, 26,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center includes multiple performance and rehearsal spaces, including:

a 650-seat proscenium theatre, set design and construction shop, dressing rooms, fully equipped orchestra pit, costume and properties shops, black box theatre, dance studio, and arts education classroom:

Location

Our Venues

  • Erwin Memorial Theater

    650-seat, Broadway-quality proscenium theatre

    • Main performance space for YAA productions

    • Professional theatrical lighting, audio, fly system, & set design and construction scene shop

    • Dressing rooms

    • Costume & Props shops

    • Fully equipped orchestra pit

  • Rehearsal Spaces

    • Multipurpose black box studio with theatrical lighting, sprung floor, and various seating configurations

    • Dance Studio with sprung floor

    • Large Chorus and Instrumental music rehearsal rooms

Staff & Faculty

  • Terry Eberhardt

    Director of SPAI

  • Paul Heinemann

    Assistant Director of SPAI, Junior Music Director

  • Madeline Rodrigue

    Director of Dance

  • Quentin Madia

    Stage Director & Teaching Artist

  • Montel Butler

    Assistant Music Director

  • Karen Blake

    Camp Life Director

  • Kathryn Bailey

    Camp Administrator & Assistant Vocal Director

  • Jackie Bautista

    Production Manager

  • Colleen Daly

    Voice

  • Wayne Allen

    Lead Counselor

  • Rolando Sanz

    Producing Artistic Director

Registration

All students are automatically accepted into the Academy program upon registration.

Students should register by June 15, 2025 at 11:59pm EDT to guarantee a spot in the program. Students will occasionally be accepted after this deadline if space is available.

VIDEO AUDITIONS (for Placement):

All students are accepted into the program upon completion of registration. A video audition will be required after registration for class placement purposes only. Students who do not submit placement videos will be considered novices and placed accordingly.

  • Please prepare two contrasting selections.

    • This may be 2 songs, 2 monologues, or 1 song and 1 monologue

    • Material selected should show your range and reflect the material you are interested in

IN-PERSON CASTING AUDITIONS (for Productions):

Casting auditions for roles in the Production will take place separately during the first day of each session.

Orientation

TBA Date: June 2025

MANDATORY Virtual Orientation for all participating students and families

  • Zoom link forthcoming to registered families

Tuition

Early-Bird Discount: ($100 discount)

  • $1,895 (automatically applied at registration through January 1, 2025)

Regular Tuition:

  • $1,995 per two-week fully in-person session

Payment:

  • A deposit of $500 is due upon registration

  • 2nd payment of half of the remaining balance is due by March 1, 2025 (non-refundable)

  • Final balance due on June 1, 2025 (non-refundable)

  • Alternative payment plans can be arranged by contacting info@yaa.org.

Tuition Includes:

  • Participation in the Junior Academy's stage production (TBA)

  • All morning classes, PLUS all afternoon and weekend rehearsals and social activities

  • A two-week summer daytime intensive experience that you won't soon forget!

Cancellation Policy: Should you need to withdraw from the program for any reason, please inform us in writing. If you have any funds due to you based on the above policy, we will return them immediately to the credit card on file in your account.

  • Students with a doctor-confirmed injury or illness, which requires leaving camp early, may receive a credit for days missed. Otherwise, there are no refunds for days or weeks that students cannot attend their program/s

  • Substitutions – having another individual attend in the registered student's place – are not allowed

  • If, due to health and safety concerns, certain classes are required to shift from in-person to virtual, there will be no tuition refunds or adjustments

Tuition Assistance

Those who wish to be considered for a scholarship or financial aid need to submit an application to us no later than March 1, 2025. Best consideration for financial aid occurs by February 1, 2025.

  1. Please contact Lisa Larragoite at lisa@yaa.org for more information

  2. Tuition Assistance is limited

FAQs

  • The main difference is that Junior Conservatory is an all-inclusive OVERNIGHT program, while Junior Academy is a DAYTIME program. Both programs run for two weeks.

    • Junior Conservatory students are in residence at the The Clarice @ University of Maryland, College Park 24/7 for the full duration of the two weeks with full room and board, recreational activities, plus a field trip to see a production at a local professional theater included in the tuition.

    • Junior Academy students are on campus daily from 8:30am-4:00pm at the Performing Arts Center @ Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, MD.

    Both programs feature similar immersive musical theatre training, with classes in voice, acting, and dance during the day and rehearsals for a mainstage production in the afternoons, evenings, and weekends.

  • All students are accepted into the program at registrations regardless of experience.

    Students will be required to submit a short Placement Video after registration so that faculty can place students in the appropriate classes.

    Once students arrive, they will Audition in-person for the production. The first day will include audition workshops, dance calls, and both group and solo singing and axting auditions. The show will be cast by the end of the first day and rehearsals will begin immediately.

  • We have laid out best practices for a successful video audition on this page. We recommend you visit it before completing your Placement Audition.

  • The Erwin Memorial Theatre at Good Counsel has a capacity of 600+ in the audience, so we will be able to accommodate all of your friends and family at our final performances.

    The final performance will take place on the final afternoon of the program in the Erwin Memorial Theatre at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School.

    Tickets will be made available by YAA to participants first about a week before the performance, followed by opening them to the public. Tickets to the performances are free, and donations to help underwrite scholarships are always welcome.

  • As always, we will have a blueprint for success. Staging, music, and choreography rehearsals will take place in-person at the same intensive pace that students are used to from YAA. We will always set every student up for success! This is an INTENSIVE after all!

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