Festival Information

The 2026 Florida Junior Thespian State Festival will be held on February 5-7, 2026 in Orlando, FL at the Orange County Convention Center.

The Florida Thespian Junior State Festival provides the opportunity for students to participate in a variety of workshops, one act performances, master classes, individual Thespy events, Mainstage performances, and technical theatre events led by theatre professionals from around the country, all while you get to spend time with other middle school students from around the state who share your passion and excitement for theatre.

The festival is an educational event for middle school students, troupe directors, and registered chaperones. We are bound by seating limitations at our venues so priority for participation in all events will be given first to registered thespian troupes.

Conference Registration

Middle schools with active troupes are welcomed to attend; middle school troupe directors (or theatre teachers) will coordinate and be responsible for the registration for their school’s attendees.

In order to attend the Florida Junior Thespian State Festival, all students must be current 6th, 7th, or 8th grade students who qualified to attend through participation at their troupe’s district thespian festival in either a Thespy event or One Act play performance.

Troupe Directors (or theatre teachers) may register students currently enrolled at your school this year, as well as chaperones who are (or will be) 21 years of age by February 5, 2026. Registered troupe directors and chaperones are able to attend all conference events but should also consider themselves supervisors of students throughout the conference.

Chaperones must be at least 21 years old. To ensure that students are properly supervised, troupe directors must register one chaperone for every ten students (1:10) and at least one chaperone of each gender, if their group consists of students of both genders.

Registration Dates & Deadlines:

All registration fees and materials must be received by our published deadlines. Failure to do so will result in a late fee and if registration is more than three (3) weeks late, your troupe will not be able to attend the festival.

Online Registration Window: November 13-December 5, 2025
Google Form/Mail In Deadline: December 11, 2025 (ALL MATERIALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY THIS DATE)

Fees:

All registration fees are non-refundable and registration is final once we have passed the online registration window. There will not be any exceptions made to this as we plan for the exact number of registered delegates at our event. If a troupe’s registration materials are not received by the deadline, a $200 flat late fee will be assessed; after the second Tuesday of January, an additional $100 fee will be assessed for a maximum of two weeks. At that point, troupes will not be able to attend the festival.

Festival Registration: $100 per festival delegate (student, troupe director, chaperone)
Day Passes: $60 per person/per day if purchased by the online registration deadline
- Day Pass holders are permitted to attend our daytime events. They do not receive tickets and will not be permitted in the venues during the evening performances.
- Day Passes DO NOT include admission to our Opening Ceremony, Closing Ceremony, Mainstage performances, or any evening events
- All Day Passes sold at the festival are $80

Acceptable forms of payment are:

certified checks
school checks
school booster club checks
money orders (complete with signature, if required)
credit cards

No personal checks will be accepted.

Make all checks/money orders payable to “Florida State Thespian Society, Inc.” or the dba “Florida Junior Thespians.”

Registration Submission

Your complete registration submission must include:

Check for the full amount matching your invoice, made payable to Florida State Thespian Society, Inc. (or the dba “Florida Junior Thespians”) OR printed copy of credit card payment/receipt
Printed copy of Troupe Invoice from the registration system
Official Signature Form (signed by both the troupe director and school administrator)

Review our Mailing Best Practices before sending your registration materials.