The NOVAPA Blog
Practical answers for theatre families across Northern Virginia: choosing a class, surviving audition season, getting into a BFA program, and what actually happens on our stages. Written by Tony Cimino-Johnson, founder of Northern Virginia Performing Arts and author of The Theatre Leader's Playbook.
Backstage
October 13, 2026
Theatre calls the last week before opening hell week, and then the name becomes the plan. A company wrecked by Thursday wasn't worked hard. It was scheduled badly.
The week we run instead, why individual notes should never be read aloud to a cast in costume, and the full anatomy of a tech night for parents wondering why pickup is so late.
Read the full guide →
Parents
September 16, 2026
A shy child is rarely afraid of pretending. They're afraid of being watched as themselves, and drama is the one activity that hands them a character, a group, and a game to stand behind.
Shy, anxious, or quiet: three kids who look the same in the doorway. What a good first month looks like, what to say in the car, what to walk away from, and when to wait.
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College
September 16, 2026
Yes, and not for the reason most families expect. What admissions readers actually look for, what theatre proves that a club cannot, and how to describe four years of it on the Common App.
Theatre is not the credential. Theatre is the record. Plus the story of Virginia's first dual enrollment theatre program, and what to tell the senior thinking about dropping theatre for another AP.
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Auditions
September 14, 2026
How to read the audition notice, a two-week plan that stops three days early, and what a director is actually scoring that your kid cannot see.
Not being called back does not mean not being cast. A callback is a question the director still has; not getting one is often the answer already being yes.
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Parents
September 13, 2026
The three different things parents call stage fright, what loving adults say that makes it worse, and the seven-step protocol we use in the wings when a child locks up.
Your child does not need to be more prepared. Your child needs to be less alone in the wing, less watched, and given a job.
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Adult Classes
September 11, 2026
Who actually takes adult acting classes (almost never future actors), whether you are too old, and what happens minute by minute on the first night.
Nobody is going to discover you in an adult acting class, and that is precisely the point. The three fears everyone walks in with, answered, plus what a class costs.
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Classes
September 10, 2026
What a five-year-old can actually do in a class, what changes at nine and again at thirteen, and five signs your child is ready.
The answer you find everywhere else, "ages 8 to 11", is a casting statistic, not a teaching one. Here is the version written from inside the room, with our published prices as a benchmark you can measure any program against.
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Auditions
September 9, 2026
What to sing at ages 6 to 13, the overdone songs directors quietly dread (and when they are still fine), and how to cut sixteen bars that actually show your child off.
Nobody is scoring difficulty. A hard song at seventy percent reads as a warning; a simple song at a hundred percent reads as a professional.
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Lessons
September 7, 2026
The real 2026 price ranges, why rates run $30 to $150 an hour, and the seven questions that separate a voice teacher from a hobbyist.
Written from the hiring side of the table, by someone who has interviewed a lot of teachers and turned most of them down.
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Summer Camps
September 6, 2026
What a real production camp costs, what your child should get for the money, and the five questions that separate true theatre camps from expensive babysitting.
Almost nobody in this area publishes prices. We do, and here is what each tier actually buys.
Read the full guide →