Piper Youth Theatre
Ensemble Based. Process Driven. Physical Theatre. Join a community of emerging young artists!
Afterschool Education
Our after-school programs give children the time to settle into a community, build friendships, and create something together that didn't exist before. They'll invent characters, tell stories, solve impossible problems, make music, and discover the joy of building an imaginary world as an ensemble. There are costumes, laughter, and plenty of adventure, of course. But there is also the quiet confidence that comes from seeing your own ideas become part of the story. Whether your child has years of theatre experience or is stepping into a rehearsal room for the very first time, Piper welcomes every young artist with curiosity, creativity, and a place to belong.
FALL 2026
Fall Afterschool: Pippi Goes to School
Dates: Wednesdays, 9/16-11/25 (no class 11/11)
3:30pm - 5:30 pm
Location: Brooklyn Arts Exchange
Pick Up available from PS 118 & PS 321
10 Weeks / 10 Sessions; $500
2nd - 4th Graders
What happens when the strongest, funniest, most wonderfully unpredictable girl in the world decides to try school? Inspired by Astrid Lindgren's beloved character, students will use theatre games, storytelling, movement, music, and their own imaginations to create a brand-new Piper adventure. Along the way, they'll invent outrageous characters, solve impossible problems, and discover that sometimes the best way to learn is by refusing to do things the ordinary way.
WINTER 2027
Winter Afterschool: Story Lab
Dates: Wednesdays, 1/6 - 2/10
3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Location: Brooklyn Arts Exchange
Pick Up available from PS 118
6 Weeks / 6 Sessions; $270
1st - 2nd Graders
There are no scripts. Just a room full of ideas waiting to happen. Through fast-paced theatre games, improvisation, character creation, storytelling, and ensemble challenges, students learn to think on their feet, trust their instincts, build unforgettable characters, and turn the simplest idea into an adventure. Every class is different. Every class is full of surprises.
SPRING 2027
Spring Afterschool: MY FIRST MUSICAL
Millie Escapes Screenworld , A New Musical
Dates: Wednesdays, 3/24 - 6/2 (no class 4/28)
3:30pm - 5:30 pm
Location: Brooklyn Arts Exchange
Pick Up available from PS 118 & PS 321
10 Weeks / 10 Sessions; $550
3rd - 5th Graders
Millie has had enough. Her friends are glued to their screens, her parents barely look up from their phones, and even the dog seems distracted. So when she accidentally discovers a way to shut down the internet and electricity for the entire summer, the world goes delightfully off the rails. Suddenly, kids are riding bikes, building forts, playing outside, and talking to each other again. Funny, fast-paced, and full of unforgettable songs, this brand-new musical gives young performers a chance to sing, dance, act, and remind us that the best adventures don't need Wi-Fi.
Summer Education
July 2027
EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION FOR SUMMER 2027 IS OPEN!
Check out everything Piper offers next summer below.
Head to the bottom of the page for essential information about these programs.
Piper Starlings
Designed for our youngest artists, Starlings offers a gentle introduction to performance, storytelling, and the joy of making theatre together. Rather than handing children a finished script on the first day, professional teaching artists build the story alongside them, allowing their ideas, characters, and imaginations to shape the adventure. Through theatre games, movement, music, art, and plenty of pretending, children discover what it means to be part of an ensemble while creating a story that belongs to them.
Starlings: Neverland Detectives Part I
1 Week Program: July 6 - 9 (No Class July 5th)
Rising Kindergarten to Rising Third Grade | Tuition $500
Emergency. Tinker Bell has disappeared. Armed with only a handful of pixie dust, a mysterious map, and a trail of clues, children become the official Neverland Detectives. They'll search hidden beaches, fairy hideouts, pirate coves, and forgotten corners of Neverland while meeting mermaids, Lost Kids, pirates, and all sorts of curious creatures. Together they'll invent characters, create maps, build props, play theatre games, and discover that every clue leads to an even bigger mystery.
A Family Share takes place on July 9th!
Starlings: Neverland Detectives Part II
1 Week Program: July 12 - 16
Rising Kindergarten to Rising Third Grade | Tuition $625
The search is over. Now the adventure begins. Captain Hook has uncovered something he was never meant to find, and the Neverland Detectives must stop his plans before the island changes forever. Children will join forces with the Lost Kids, outsmart pirates, hatch daring rescues, build secret hideouts, create theatrical surprises, and decide how the story ends. Every day, the ensemble will solve problems, invent new adventures, and discover that the best stories are the ones we create together.
A Family Share takes place on July 16th!
Starlings Sing: LITTLE TROLLS
2 Week Program: July 19 - August 1 (Weekend Performances)
Rising First Grade to Rising Third Grade | Tuition $1300
Every kingdom has its smallest heroes. During the first week, our youngest artists journey into the enchanted world of Arendelle through Process Drama, where they'll discover the hidden valley of the trolls. Together they'll build a magical community, invent ancient traditions, create costumes, masks, music, and props, and explore a world where love, kindness, and a little bit of magic can change everything. During the second week, they'll join the older Piper company in the official production of Disney's Frozen JR., rehearsing alongside older actors, learning songs and choreography, and performing as the Trolls in a fully staged musical. First, they'll create the world. Then they'll step inside it. A gentle introduction to play and performance.
Piper Theatre Workshops:
Piper’s two- and three-week Theatre Workshops are built around the ensemble. Led by an experienced Stage Director, students spend their days acting, moving, creating characters, exploring physical theatre, and figuring out how to build an entire world together. Each workshop ends with a fully staged production shared with family and friends.
Piper Theatre Workshop: Comedy
A World Premiere Comedy:
MYSTERY ISLAND by Meredith Hackett
July 19 - Aug 1 (Weekend Performances)
Rising 5th to 7th Graders |Tuition $1250
Sudsie is convinced she's been sentenced to the worst summer ever. Her father's magic shop has gone out of business, she's been forced to leave behind her friends, her softball team, and just about everything she loves to move to the tiny island where he grew up. Then she discovers a hidden tunnel. Soon, there are sea caves that only appear when the tide is right, maps with pieces missing, strange neighbors with stranger stories, and an island full of people who insist there isn't a mystery. Which is exactly what someone living in a mystery would say. At Piper, Mystery Island comes to life through the imagination of the ensemble as actors become crashing waves, hidden passageways, forgotten ruins, eccentric islanders, fierce storms, and the clues themselves. Nobody, including the actors, knows every secret on the first day. Every rehearsal uncovers another clue, every discovery reveals another surprise, and before long, the audience will be trying to solve the mystery right alongside the company.
Piper Theatre Workshop: Shakespeare
Introduction to Shakespeare:
HAMLET
July 6-16
Rising 6th to 8th Graders|Tuition $1150
A ghost walks the castle walls. Spies hide behind curtains. Sword fights turn deadly. A troupe of actors is enlisted to solve a murder. Pirates appear. Gravediggers joke beside an open grave. Four hundred years after it was written, Hamlet remains one of the most thrilling adventures ever written for the stage. At Piper, students discover why actors have returned to Shakespeare for centuries. They'll wrestle with language that is surprisingly funny, human, and astonishingly alive. Working in a small company allows every actor to tackle language, character, and scene work with individual coaching throughout the rehearsal process.
Piper Theatre Workshop: Musical
Introduction to Musicals:
Disney’s FROZEN Jr.
July 19 - Aug 1 (Weekend Performances)
Rising 4th to 7th Graders |Tuition $1300
Two sisters. An enchanted kingdom. A mountain of ice. A talking snowman. Wolves, trolls, blizzards, and one unforgettable adventure. Disney’s Frozen Jr. is more than the story audiences know from the film. It's about finding the courage to be yourself, discovering that love is stronger than fear, and learning that the people who know us best are often the ones who help us become who we're meant to be. At Piper, Arendelle is created by the imagination of the ensemble as actors become swirling snowstorms, towering mountains, enchanted forests, bustling villagers, and the magic itself. Along the way, students develop singing, acting, movement, and storytelling skills while creating a joyful, full-scale musical where every performer has an essential place in bringing the kingdom to life.
Disney’s Frozen Jr. is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized production materials are also supplied by MTI. www.mtishows.com
Piper Theatre Workshop: Adventure Series
A WRINKLE IN TIME
Directed by Lindsey Sproul
Based on the novel by Madeleine L'Engle
July 12 - Aug 1 (Weekend Performances)
Rising 6th Grade to Rising 10th Grade | Tuition $1950
Some stories ask actors to pretend. A Wrinkle in Time asks them to believe. Meg Murry, her brilliant younger brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin leave the safety of home to travel across space and time in search of Meg's missing father. Along the way, they encounter extraordinary beings, impossible worlds, and a darkness that can only be defeated through courage, imagination, and love. There are no shortcuts here. A room becomes a galaxy. A company becomes a living planet. Movement, light, sound, and ensemble storytelling transform empty space into an entire universe. Students will create impossible worlds together, discovering how the actor's body, voice, and imagination can accomplish effects no technology ever could. It is ambitious, collaborative, and unlike any theatrical experience they'll find anywhere else. Includes a Broadway Matinee Experience(Production to be announced)
Piper Musical Intensives
July 6 - August 1 (Weekend Performances)
Rising 7th Grade to Seniors | Tuition $2600
Four weeks. One company. One full musical. Piper’s Musical Theatre Intensive is built for young actors ready to work hard, take risks, and create a full musical in just four weeks. Led by an experienced Stage Director and Musical Director, students work in acting, singing, movement, physical theatre, character, and ensemble storytelling. On the first day, students will audition for both summer musicals and be placed into one of the two companies. Preferences will be considered, but students must be open to either production as their summer experience. Auditions require 32 bars of a prepared song from any musical. Both productions will be supported by a two-piece band of bass and drums, giving students the experience of rehearsing and performing with live musicians. Prior performance experience is strongly recommended. Rehearsals move quickly, everyone works, and four weeks goes very fast. Performances at the end of the session showcase the full scope of student growth.
MUSICAL 1 - RENT: School Edition (RIGHTS PENDING) | Music, Lyrics, and Book by Jonathan Larson
Set in New York City's East Village at the height of the AIDS epidemic, RENT follows a community of young artists living beneath the shadow of a disease that stole far too many lives and forever changed a generation. At Piper, New York City will be created almost entirely through the imagination of the ensemble as actors invite us into apartment buildings, subway cars, cafés, protests, hospital rooms, performance spaces, and crowded city streets using little more than their bodies, voices, and theatrical imagination. Every transformation reminds us how quickly life can change and how fiercely people cling to one another when it does. Heartbreaking, defiant, and profoundly life-affirming, RENT honors a generation we lost while celebrating the extraordinary beauty of those who chose to create, to love, and to keep singing anyway.
MUSICAL 2 - URINETOWN (RIGHTS PENDING) Music & Book by Mark Hollman, Book & Lyrics by Greg Kotis
A terrible drought has left the city with one very serious problem: there isn't enough water to flush the toilets. Private bathrooms are outlawed, everyone must pay to pee, and anyone caught breaking the rules is hauled off to a mysterious place called Urinetown. Then Bobby Strong decides he's had enough. At Piper, students will build this strange, crumbling city together, becoming cops, rebels, executives, frightened citizens, and eventually a very unruly mob. Funny, physical, smart, and completely ridiculous, Urinetown gives young actors the chance to sing, dance, fall in love, overthrow the government, and discover that saving the world is a little more complicated than anyone thought.
Both Musical Intensive Titles (Rights Pending) will be presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized production materials are also supplied by MTI. www.mtishows.com
Essential Information for Summer 2027
There’s so much happening at Piper in the summer!
Here’s everything you need to know:
The ages listed for each program are suggestions. There are no cut-offs for age. Artists are at different development periods. If a younger child would like to work with older children or an older child is comfortable with younger children, that is fine.
Please contact info@pipertheatre.org for more information to see where your child might find success.
All summer rehearsals will be held from 9am – 4pm at a Park Slope location to be determined.
Due to the performance nature of our program, students are expected to attend EVERY rehearsal and performance.
Students will need to provide confirmation of MMR immunizations. COVID-19 vaccination is encouraged for all students and staff.
Financial aid is available upon request. Application Deadline is March 15, 2027 (early submission strongly recommended.)
Apply upon registration. Deposit waived pending awards announced on April 1, 2027.Non-refundable deposit is required upon registration: $250 for one-week programs / $500 for two-week, three-week & four-week programs
Full payment is due by May 1, 2027; No Refunds after this date.
10% Sibling Discount
Titles and Dates are subject to change