Special Event
How Youth Scholarships Make a Difference
A Stage for Every Story: How Village Theatre’s Youth Education Scholarships Are Opening Doors
At Village Theatre, the path from a student’s first class to a confident young artist often runs through a single, quietly powerful document: a financial assistance application.
This season, that simple document provided an opportunity and support to change the lives of 126 students.
Across Village Theatre’s two campuses, the 2025–26 program year saw $83,706.62 in need-based scholarships awarded to young people enrolled in classes, summer camps, Institute, College Prep, and youth education productions. Behind every dollar is a student who otherwise might have missed the chance to explore theater and learn more about themselves— and a community of donors quietly making sure that didn’t happen.
A Simple Promise
Village Theatre’s approach to access in its youth education programming is deliberately straightforward. The organization offers a guaranteed-acceptance application, available year-round, and awards assistance in the form of discounted tuition, with full scholarships granted when need is greatest.
Village Theatre believes that experiential learning in theater arts is a powerful tool for building essential life and career skills — critical thinking, concentration, collaboration, discipline, communication, and creativity. Village strives to ensure that all young people, regardless of financial circumstances, are able to participate in programming.
That stated goal is more than a mission statement. It is a measurable practice — and this year’s data shows it at work.
By the Numbers: Where Scholarships Made a Difference
Scholarship support reached every corner of Village Theatre’s youth education programming this year:
- Funding spanned fall and winter/spring classes, the season’s full camp slate, College Prep, Summer Performance Intensive and in Institute, where students received a full year of musical theatre training.
- Investment ran particularly deep in production participation — supporting 25 students in Ensemble, TeenSelect, and SummerStock.
The largest concentrations of need-based support went to programs that represent the deepest commitment a young artist can make.
- Institute, Village Theatre’s multi-class musical training program, supported 13 scholarship students.
- College Prep — the conservatory-style audition coaching program for college-bound artists — supported six students.
- Summer camps, often the entry point into a lifelong relationship with the theatre, welcomed 53 scholarship students across Issaquah and Everett.
Why Access Matters
The numbers also reflect a region where the need is growing. In Snohomish County, where Village Theatre’s Everett campus serves as a critical arts education hub, 24% of youth live below the federal poverty line. As public school arts budgets continue to face pressure, community-based youth programming has become more essential — and more in demand.
Enrollment trends bear this out. This past fall, classes were incredible full, exceeding Village’s participation goals and welcoming 839 young performers across the two locations. As more families are joining the program more families are also asking for help to make it possible for their student to come through the door.
Village Theatre’s youth education programming holds a Quality Seal from Washington State’s Expanded Learning Opportunities Initiative, a recognition reserved for programs proven to strengthen academic achievement, social-emotional skills, and a young person’s sense of belonging and purpose. Scholarships ensure those benefits aren’t reserved for the families best positioned to pay for them.
In Their Own Words
“Because of KIDSTAGE, I feel so confident and loved in this community. My skills as a performer have increased tremendously and I have KIDSTAGE to thank for that!” – Dorothy, KIDSTAGE Student
“As I start my first year in college, I will carry the lessons KIDSTAGE has taught me of teamwork, commitment, and leadership.” – Kylie, recent KIDSTAGE alumni
“I will take the confidence and bravery KIDSTAGE has tough me and use it for the rest of my life. KIDSTAGE has pushed me out of my comfort zone time and time again teaching me how to be brave.” – Olivia, KIDSTAGE student
Donor Spotlight: The People Behind the Promise
None of this work happens in a vacuum. Village Theatre’s scholarship fund is sustained by an extraordinary community of corporate partners, family foundations, civic organizations, and individual donors who have chosen, year after year, to invest in young artists.
Each of these partners has done more than fund a tuition discount. They have made it possible for students to find their voices and gain confidence, for high schoolers to apply and successfully continue their education at incredible universities and conservatory programs, and for hundreds of young people in between to find a creative home where the only prerequisite for belonging is the desire to be there.
Be Part of the Next Student’s Story
Every scholarship is a seat saved for a young person who might otherwise never be able to experience the joy of theatre and the growth that comes through our KIDSTAGE programming. Every gift — large or small — extends that promise into another season.
Learn more about the benefits and different ways you can support programming villagetheatre.org/support.