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Founded 1934
Founding: In 1934 Dr. Clive McAllister, president of the Old Fort Players, appointed a committee to create a children's theatre branch; the company's own education guides tell it that way, while the mission statement carried by Charity Navigator names the founders as Mrs. Chan Ray and Mrs. Lester Jacobs. The purpose was practical: poise, diction and self-confidence through dramatic instruction. The first class enrolled 40 students, each paying one dollar for eight lessons, and the first production, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, put 75 young actors on the Majestic Theatre stage. Youtheatre describes itself as the fifth oldest children's theatre in the nation.
Course: The children's audience had reached 10,000 by 1946. In 1954 the fire department ruled the Majestic unsafe for children, and the Children's Theatre spent a decade moving from place to place; it had taken the name Fort Wayne Youtheatre by the time it rejoined the Civic Theatre at the Palace, hired its own first director in 1966, and moved with Civic into the Arts United Center in 1973. Broadway actor Harvey Cocks became executive director in 1978 and led the company for more than forty years. Youtheatre became an independent organization in 1984, sharing space with its parent but run as its own company. Todd Espeland led it from 2018; the company was housed at the Auer Center from 2023, and in 2025 moved its home to the Park Lake Professional Center, under executive director Heather Closson and artistic director Christopher J. Murphy.
Sources:
- Fort Wayne Youtheatre, education guides and About Us (fwyt.org) — the 1934 committee, the first class and production, the 1954 removal, the 1973 move, the 1984 independence, the 2025 Park Lake move and current leadership.
- Charity Navigator, Fort Wayne Youtheatre Incorporated — the mission statement naming Mrs. Chan Ray and Mrs. Lester Jacobs as founders (variant); Fort Wayne Civic Theatre, "A Brief Historic Overview" — the 1966 first Youtheatre director; Harvey Cocks tenure per the Youtheatre guides.