Best for a K–12 kid who wants real stage time; NTPA casts everyone who enrolls.

TheaterActingMusical TheaterFilm & TV Acting
Recreational
Group & privateIndoorFall campsWinter campsSummer campsSession-basedYear-round
1101 N Carroll Ave, Southlake, TX 76092
Main1101 N Carroll Ave, Southlake, TX 76092
Willow Bend Center of the Arts6121 W Park Blvd Suite B216, Plano, TX 75093
NTPA Dallas12300 Inwood Rd #112, Dallas, TX 75244
NTPA Frisco6500 Preston Road Suite 101, Frisco, TX 75034
Fairview Youth Theatre302 Town Place, Fairview, TX 75069
$99 - $459

$99 - $459

  • After-school classes are $249 per class (one hour a week for 7 weeks).
  • Summer camps: half-day (morning or afternoon) $299, full-day production $459, full-day Film Camp $425; two-week productions vary by show.
  • Fall/winter break camps run $50 (half day) to $90 (full day).
  • A $99 new-student audition-prep special covers a 3-lesson private package.
  • Discounts are heavily promoted: 40% off a first class, camp, or production for new students (ages 5–18), plus early-bird and 10% sibling discounts.
Year-round youth theatre for grades K–12 at NTPA's own Southlake theatre. After-school classes run in 7-week sessions on weekday late afternoons (elementary productions, an "Act It Out!" acting class, and a Southlake-only Musical Theatre 1), grouped by grade; the autumn session meets the weeks of September 14 – November 2, with showcases and final classes in that last week. Summer brings weekly camps June–August (half-day Art & Drama for ages 5–8 and Center Stage for 7–11, full-day production camps for 9–14, a grades 3–6 Film Studios camp, two-week productions, and musical-theatre intensives — see the Camp fields). Fall and winter school-break camps run on off days. Private lessons (acting, voice, dance) are available for ages 10+ (audition prep from age 7). Productions are open-cast — students who enroll are cast, not cut.

Schedule

Year-round youth theatre for grades K–12 at NTPA's own Southlake theatre. After-school classes run in 7-week sessions on weekday late afternoons (elementary productions, an "Act It Out!" acting class, and a Southlake-only Musical Theatre 1), grouped by grade; the autumn session meets the weeks of September 14 – November 2, with showcases and final classes in that last week. Summer brings weekly camps June–August (half-day Art & Drama for ages 5–8 and Center Stage for 7–11, full-day production camps for 9–14, a grades 3–6 Film Studios camp, two-week productions, and musical-theatre intensives — see the Camp fields). Fall and winter school-break camps run on off days. Private lessons (acting, voice, dance) are available for ages 10+ (audition prep from age 7). Productions are open-cast — students who enroll are cast, not cut.

7 Summer Camps Concluded
  • Jun 1 – Aug 7 · Art & Drama (weekly)Concluded · 9am–12pm · ages 5–8
  • Jun 1 – Aug 7 · Center Stage (weekly)Concluded · 1pm–4pm · ages 7–11
  • Jun 1 – Aug 7 · Full Day Production (weekly)Concluded · 9am–4pm · ages 9–14
  • Jun 15–19 · Film Camp (Film Studios)Concluded · 9am–3pm
  • Jul 20–24 · Movie Magic Camp (Film Studios)Concluded · 9am–3pm
  • Jun 15–19 · Broadway Bound intensiveConcluded · 1pm–4pm
  • Jul 27–31 · Ready, Set... Audition! intensiveConcluded · 1pm–4pm

Cost · Summer: half-day camps $299, full-day production $459, full-day Film Camp $425; two-week productions vary by show. Fall/winter break camps $50 (half day) / $90 (full day). New-student 40% off (NEW2NTPA); Super Early Bird 40% (BIRD40), Early Bird 30% (EARLY30), and 10% sibling discounts apply.

Details

Summer camps run weekly across June and July at the Southlake campus. Art & Drama (ages 5–8, 9AM–12PM) runs each week of the season; Center Stage (ages 7–11, 1–4PM) runs weekly apart from a July 13–17 break; Full Day Production (ages 9–14, 9AM–4PM) runs weekly. Film Studios Camps (grades 3–6), Two-Week Productions (grades K–12) and Summer Intensives (grades 4–7, 1–4PM) run on set weeks within the season. Every camp opens with a half-hour parent orientation and closes with a showcase; full-day campers bring a sack lunch. Fall and winter school-break camps also run each year. Most recently published: the 2026 summer season, weekly June 1 – July 31; the Aug 3–7 week is marked “no camp” at Southlake.

Our take

NTPA – Southlake is the Southlake branch of North Texas Performing Arts, a nonprofit youth theatre organization, and the thing that defines it is right there in how it casts: students who enroll are cast, not auditioned out. That "open-cast" model shapes the whole culture — it's built for kids who want to be in a real production regardless of experience, and it leans on a stated leadership-values framework (NTPA calls it the "Ten Characters" — teamwork, responsibility, respect, discipline, and the like) as much as on the shows themselves.

Southlake is NTPA's fifth location and runs out of its own theatre on North Carroll Avenue, with a mainstage, lobby, rehearsal spaces, and practice rooms. The programming is genuinely year-round: 7-week after-school classes grouped by grade, a full summer camp slate, two-week productions where everyone enrolled is cast, and a Film Studios camp for kids who'd rather write, shoot, and edit a short than perform on stage. If your child wants a program that puts competition first, or gates entry by audition, this isn't that; if you want a lot of stage time in a structured youth-theatre setting, it fits.

Local Tips

The Southlake location is on North Carroll Avenue and is NTPA's own space, so productions and classes happen in-house rather than at a rented hall. A few practical notes:

  • After-school classes run in 7-week sessions on weekday late afternoons and fill by grade band, so check which class matches your child's grade.
  • Summer camps run weekly from June into August, split by age into half-day (younger) and full-day (older) options, with a separate grades 3–6 film camp and two-week productions.
  • Registration runs through NTPA's ASAP Connected portal, and the organization pushes a standing new-student discount (40% off a first class, camp, or production) plus early-bird and sibling discounts, so it's worth timing a first enrollment around those.
  • Contact and billing route through NTPA's shared customer-service line and email rather than a Southlake-only number.
Credentials

North Texas Performing Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit governed by a board, and the Southlake location is supported by a volunteer parent management board. NTPA's published child-safety standard is its STARS program, which the organization describes as requiring background checks and safety training for those working with its students. The Southlake materials don't name a single resident artistic director, so families evaluating the program should ask which staff lead the specific class or production they're considering; the operational standard the organization markets is the STARS youth-protection framework applied across its locations.

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