It’s all because of ANNIE. In January of 2002, our President, Nick Manos met with Music Theater International (who licenses ANNIE) to talk about doing more to celebrate student participation in Theater. Out of that meeting came the Junior Theater Festival—Theater of the Stars’ largest and most far reaching outreach effort.

The Junior Theater Festival is the largest festival dedicated to young people performing musical theater. Held over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend in Atlanta, Georgia, the festival brings together middle school student performing groups from the United States and around the world in the spirit of celebration and collaboration. Key festival events include student performances for adjudication by leading professionals in the field, professional development for teachers, directors and student performers as well as celebrity appearances, a new works showcase, and an awards ceremony. The festival climaxes at the Fabulous Fox Theater with a Theater of the Stars production.

The mission of the Junior Theater Festival is to celebrate and nurture young performers and those that work with them through quality programming that builds skills in all areas of musical theater performance and production. To put it in a familiar perspective…Think of the Junior Theater Festival as a musical theater version of the Little League World Series.

To date six festivals have been produced, JTF 2003, JTF 2005, JTF 2007, JTF 2009, JTF 2010 and JTF 2011.
Because of the success of the festival, it became an annual event after 2009 and has continued to expand every year. 2010 was the first year that "maximum capacity" was reached and the festival is growing to accommodate the increased interest. Over seventy five student-performing troupes from twenty states and five countries have attended one or more festivals, with total attendance topping 3,500. Celebrities who have participated in past festivals have included Disney Theatrical Group's Thomas Schumacher, American Idol’s Michael Orland, Christie Carlson Romano and Zac Efron. The festival has premiered over a dozen new works adapted specifically to be performed by students including Disney’s Aladdin, Disney’s High School Musical, and Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka.