Imagination Stage

One step closer to the spotlight! Auditions for fall student training programs and productions start this summer!

Our programs span one or two semesters and meet two or three times a week. Participate in intensive training and high quality productions for all students!

Learn more about the programs and how to audition on our website!

Photos from spring productions of IStage Dance Theatre, IStage Performance Ensemble, and Speak Out on Stage by Jeremy Rusnock

Huge congratulations to the 2026 Helen Hayes Award Winners! 🏆✨
We are incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such immense talent and to regularly collaborate with artists who consistently raise the bar for high-caliber art.

We are bursting with pride for our frequent collaborators and friends who took home awards this week:

🎨 Design & Creative Excellence:
- Ashleigh King (Director, Frog & Toad) & Ryan Sellers (Performer, Snowman and the Snowdog) – Outstanding Choreography in a Musical (Helen) for The Lightning Thief at Adventure Theatre MTC
- Paris Francesca (Costume Designer, Petite Rouge, Pete the Cat) – Outstanding Costume Design (Helen) for Not Your Mother's Goose! at Adventure Theatre MTC
- Megan Holden (Scenic Designer, Production Camps at JDS) – Outstanding Set Design (Helen) for Not Your Mother's Goose! at Adventure Theatre MTC
- Justin Schmitz (Sound Designer, Frog & Toad, Dory Fantasmagory, Pete the Cat) – Outstanding Sound Design (Helen) for hang at 1st Stage
- Luis Garcia (Designer, Pete the Cat) – Outstanding Media/Projections Design (Helen) for Professor Woland's Black Magic Rock Show at Spooky Action Theater

🎭 Outstanding Ensembles:
🎶 Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical (Helen) – Head Over Heels at Constellation Theatre Company, featuring our wonderful artists Ariana Caldwell (Cinderella: A Salsa Fairytale), Harrison Smith (Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed), Stephen Russell Murray (Petite Rouge), and Jordan Essex (The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show)

🥸Outstanding Ensemble in a Play (Helen) – Not Your Mother's Goose! at Adventure Theatre MTC, featuring our fantastic artists Irene Hamilton (Dory Fantasmagory, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show), Trenton McKenzie Beavers (Grinch), and Hannah Taylor (Paper Dreams, The Last Martyr)

And a special, extra shoutout to our Theatre-for-young-audiences neighbors at for an amazing 5 Helen Hayes wins this season!
👏👏
We love watching our DMV theatre family shine. Congratulations to all! ✨

We are thrilled that the 3 million members of the NEA Today can read about how our Educational Theatre touring show Ghosted engages middle and high school students through theatre, opening up important conversations around teen mental health in our school communities.
Thanks to Cynthia Long for her excellent article. Read it here: https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/school-theater-program-tackles-teen-mental-health

Learn more about Ghosted and our partnership with Kaiser Permanente at imaginationstage.org/educational-theatre/

School Theater Program Tackles Teen Mental Health | NEA Finding a meaningful way to talk to students about su***de is tricky. Theater can help.

Rocking out or leap in to the weekend?
Either way, start early with these amazing shots of our IStage Dance Theatre performance (Photos from ). Then, come see these dancers perform in our Christopher and Dana Reeve Studio Theatre, today and tomorrow, May 14-15 at 7:00.
*These are free/unticketed performances.

This week brings the culmination of our many advanced training programs! Join us in attending these performances and see what our programs have to offer. Then, take the next step and get ready to for one of these programs next year.

👯‍♀️IStage Dance Theatre, our advanced teen dance company performing in the styles of modern, jazz, and tap (May 14-15, 7:00pm*)
🎭Acting Conservatory Showcase, the culminating performance event of our year-long teen acting training program (May 16, 4:00pm*)
👨🏾‍🎤Musical Theatre Conservatory Showcase, the culminating performance event of our year-long teen musical training program (May 17, 4:00pm*)

Audition information for the 2026-27 school year, and more about these training and performance programs can be found on our website.

*IStage Dance Theatre and Conservatory Showcases are free/unticketed performances.

Photos by from Istage Dance Theatre 2025, Pippin, and Tuck Everlasting