; ?>)
For more than a decade, Stoddart Entertainment Group has been building one of Australia’s most significant platforms for young people in musical theatre.
Now, Junior Theatre Festival Australia is ready for its biggest leap yet.
Following one final festival at Newcastle’s Civic Theatre in October 2026, JTF Australia will move to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in October 2027, creating the capacity for the event to grow from around 1,400 participants today to more than 5,000 in the years ahead.
For Stoddart Entertainment Group, the move represents far more than the growth of a single event.
It is the next stage of a long-term commitment to developing young artists, supporting theatre educators, creating pathways into the professional industry and building the audiences who will shape the future of Australian theatre.
Building the next generation
SEG’s commitment to young people and theatre development stretches back almost two decades.
From the establishment of Hunter Drama in Newcastle in 2007 to the launch of Junior Theatre Festival Australia in 2016, the company has consistently invested in creating meaningful opportunities for young people to engage with theatre – not simply as participants, but as the artists, creatives, educators and audiences of the future.
JTF Australia has become one of the clearest expressions of that commitment.
Thousands of young performers have taken to its stages. Hundreds of schools, academies and theatre groups have travelled from across Australia to participate. Leading Australian performers, Broadway artists, international creatives and some of the country’s best musical theatre educators have worked directly with the young people attending.
For SEG Founder and CEO Daniel Stoddart, that connection between young people and the professional industry has always been fundamental to the festival.
“When we started JTF Australia in 2016, we knew there was an appetite for something much bigger than another performance opportunity,” says Daniel.
“We wanted young people to walk into a building and suddenly find themselves connected to the entire musical theatre industry, its performers, directors, choreographers, writers, producers, educators and thousands of other young people who share their passion.”
“What has happened since has gone far beyond what we imagined. The community has exploded, demand has outgrown the venue and JTF itself has become something much bigger.”
Developing more than performers
For SEG, youth arts development has never been solely about training the next generation of performers.
A healthy theatre sector needs artists. But it also needs teachers, directors, choreographers, writers, producers, technicians, advocates, and audiences.
JTF Australia has been deliberately built with that wider ecosystem in mind.
Young performers receive professional adjudication, undertake masterclasses with working theatre practitioners and encounter new repertoire. Teachers and directors access professional development, international expertise and a national network of fellow educators.
Through JTF’s new musical pilot programs, Australian young people have also been given the opportunity to participate directly in the development of new work, becoming some of the first performers in the world to bring new titles to life.
And for thousands of young people, JTF provides something equally important: an early connection to a much bigger theatrical community.
“Not every young person who comes through JTF is going to become a professional performer, and that isn’t the point,” says Daniel.
“Some will become actors. Some will become teachers, directors, designers or technicians. Some will simply become adults who love theatre, buy tickets, take their own children to shows and advocate for the arts in their communities.”
“That is how you build a theatre sector. You start building it long before somebody buys their first professional theatre ticket.”
Eleven years in Newcastle
Before JTF Australia begins its Melbourne era, there is an important chapter still to finish.
In October 2026, the festival will return to Newcastle’s Civic Theatre for the eleventh and final year.
Newcastle has been fundamental to the JTF Australia story. What began there in 2016 has grown into the biggest celebration of young people and musical theatre in the Southern Hemisphere, drawing participants and industry professionals from across Australia and internationally.
For Daniel, who grew up in Newcastle and began his own theatre career in the region, leaving the city is particularly significant.
“Newcastle gave JTF its home and allowed us to prove that an event like this could work in Australia,” he says.
“We have enormous affection for the Civic Theatre and for the city. But we have reached the point where demand has outgrown what we can physically accommodate. If we’re serious about the next decade of JTF, we have to give it room to grow.”
Why Melbourne. Why now.
That room will come at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Victoria is already at the centre of Australia’s rapidly growing youth musical theatre community, with more than half of all Broadway Junior licences nationally currently presented in the state.
The move also places JTF Australia in the country’s musical theatre capital, creating greater opportunities to connect young people with the professional productions, artists and creatives working within the industry.
Most importantly, MCEC removes the physical ceiling that has constrained the festival’s growth.
“At the Civic Theatre, JTF Australia has reached its capacity. At MCEC, that ceiling disappears,” says Daniel.
“We’re not moving because we simply want a bigger version of the same festival. We now have the opportunity to rethink what JTF Australia can be.”
The ambition is to grow JTF Australia beyond 5,000 participants in the years ahead, creating room for more schools, more programs, more professional development, more industry engagement and more opportunities for young people from across Australia to participate.
Investing in the future of Australian theatre
The expansion of JTF Australia sits within a much broader ambition for Stoddart Entertainment Group.
Alongside producing commercial theatre and developing new Australian work, SEG continues to invest in the infrastructure around theatre itself by developing artists, creating pathways, supporting educators and building audiences.
These areas are not separate.
The young person performing at JTF today may be on a professional stage in ten years.
Their teacher may direct the school production that introduces another hundred children to musical theatre.
A student participating in a new musical pilot may become a writer.
Another may become a stage manager.
And hundreds more may simply become lifelong theatregoers.
For SEG, all of them matter.
“We talk a lot in our industry about audience development, artist development and the future of Australian theatre,” says Daniel. “But the future doesn’t suddenly arrive when someone turns 18.”
“You have to invest in it. You have to give young people extraordinary experiences with theatre early. You have to make them feel that this industry is somewhere they belong.”
“That philosophy runs through everything we do at SEG. JTF Australia is one very big, very loud expression of it.”
From 1,400 to 5,000… and beyond
Producer Daniel Stoddart, Event Manager Hayley Stoddart, Associate Producer Taylor Tran and the wider OzTheatrics and SEG teams have spent more than a decade building JTF Australia.
Melbourne gives them the opportunity to imagine its next decade.
More than 5,000 participants. More schools and academies. More educators. More industry connections. More new work. More pathways into theatre.
And, ultimately, thousands more young Australians developing a lifelong relationship with the performing arts.
That is the bigger story behind JTF Australia’s move to Melbourne.
It is not simply about moving an event from one city to another.
It is about taking something that began in Newcastle with an ambitious idea and giving it the space to become a truly national platform for the next generation of Australian theatre.
One final JTF Australia will fill Newcastle’s Civic Theatre in October 2026.
Then, in October 2027, the doors open in Melbourne.
About Junior Theatre Festival Australia
Junior Theatre Festival Australia is presented by OzTheatrics, part of Stoddart Entertainment Group, and connects young performers and educators with the professional and international musical theatre industry.
JTF Australia works closely with iTheatrics and Music Theatre International Australasia and forms part of the international Junior Theatre Festival community, alongside events in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Junior Theatre Festival Australia is proudly supported by Music Theatre International Australasia, Secret Melbourne, Fever and JH Productions, alongside many other organisations and partners who continue to make the festival possible.