Casting & placement
Which cast should my child be in?
For this production the answer is MainStage, because it is the one cast still open. It takes performers from Grade 2 up and rehearses Tuesdays. If your performer is younger than that, or you are not sure it is the right fit, reach out through pipaprograms.com/connect and we will help you find the right place, this season or next.
Is my cast preference guaranteed?
There is no preference to give this season. MainStage is the one cast still open, so enrolling now places your performer in the MainStage ensemble. What is still decided by our team is which rehearsal block they are called for, which we confirm once casting is set.
How is Premier different from MainStage?
Premier is our Wednesday cast for performers ready for a higher level of challenge, and it takes performers by audition. It is closed for this production, since auditions are finished. MainStage is the cast still open, and it is the same production: same script, same score, same staff, same performances in April.
Does my child have to audition?
No, and there is no audition to attend. Auditions for this season ran August 3 to 7 and are finished, so the named roles are cast. What is still open is a place in the MainStage ensemble, and every performer joining now takes one. If your performer is hoping to audition for a named role, the next cycle is in the spring, and a season in the ensemble is the best preparation there is for it.
Can a new student get a principal role?
Yes, new students are cast in principal roles every season. For this production the named roles were cast at August’s auditions, so what is open now is a place in the MainStage ensemble.
That is a genuine route to a named role rather than a consolation. Casting is never about seniority: we look at how a role fits a performer’s voice and range, how they connect with a character, how they take direction, and how each piece of casting balances the cast as a whole. A season in the ensemble is where we get to know your performer, and it is the best preparation there is for the next audition cycle in the spring.
Will my child get a solo, or is everyone in the ensemble?
Frozen Jr. has named principal roles (Elsa, Anna, Olaf and more), featured parts, and full ensemble. Solos go to principal and certain featured roles, cast through auditions and callbacks.
But ensemble at PYT is never background. Each ensemble has its own characters, its own staging, and its own moments that belong to them and no one else. The snow, the trolls, the townspeople of Arendelle aren’t filler around the leads; they’re the world of the show, and the story doesn’t work without them.
If your child is hungry for solo experience, our voice lessons are where that work happens, building the technique and repertoire that can lead toward solo moments, including the chance to work toward our Vocal Showcases each May and December.
What if siblings want different casts?
This season MainStage is the only cast open, so siblings joining now join the same cast. They may well be called for different rehearsal blocks on the Tuesday evening, which we confirm once casting is set. If that is awkward for your family, tell us at pipaprograms.com/connect and we will do what we can.
What happens after I enroll?
You’ll get an order confirmation right away. Before rehearsals begin we’ll send a short onboarding step (conflicts, medical and photo permissions), and your schedules, materials, and updates all live in StageHand, our family platform.
Fees, payments & refunds
What does the production fee cover?
More than anything, it covers an experience. Your child gets:
- The equivalent of more than 75 hours of theatre-arts education across the season, acting, singing, and dance, taught in small groups by a team founded and run by educators, which is genuinely rare in this industry.
- A place in a fully staged production: at least three public performances, working alongside industry professionals in a real theatre, with all the costumes, set, music, and stagecraft that go into a show of that standard.
- A season inside a company, a group of young performers who rehearse, grow, and take their bow together. Many families tell us that’s the part their child carries with them long after the show closes.
Behind the scenes, your fee also supports what makes a production of this quality possible: costumes, set construction, the music licensing every show requires, and the performance venue. There are no hidden costs and no mandatory ticket-selling quotas. What you pay is what you pay.
A few things sit outside the fee: a short list of self-costume and makeup basics we ask families to supply from home. You’ll get that list with plenty of lead time, and nothing on it is a barrier to taking part fully.
How much is the monthly production fee, and does it vary by role?
Everyone starts at the Ensemble (base) rate. Featured and Principal roles, decided through auditions, carry a higher monthly fee, and we confirm your child’s exact rate at casting.
- Debut: Ensemble $155 · Featured $175 · Principal $195 per month
- MainStage & Premier: Ensemble $195 · Featured $235 · Principal $265 per month
Every plan runs as roughly 8 monthly payments across the season. Your registration and costume fees are separate and paid upfront when you enroll.
Do you accept ESA / ClassWallet payments?
Yes. Because ESA funds are released on their own schedule, ESA families reserve a spot rather than paying at checkout:
reserve your Frozen Jr. spot here (no payment now), and we’ll set up your ClassWallet billing, all at once or split across your ESA disbursements, whatever fits. You can also reach us through our contact form at
pipaprograms.com/connect.
Do you offer payment plans?
Yes. Frozen Jr. runs as a single production, with your fees spread across roughly 8 monthly payments from enrollment through the show, so rather than one large sum, you’re on a manageable monthly plan for the whole season. You’ll see the exact amount and date of each payment before you confirm at checkout, and your card is charged automatically on those dates. Think of it as a payment plan for the full production rather than a month-to-month subscription you can start and stop.
What’s your refund policy?
When you enroll, you’re committing to the full production, and your fees work as a payment plan for the whole experience rather than a month-to-month subscription. There are two routes in, and they have their own terms.
If you enrolled before auditions:
- Your registration and costume fee was refundable, less a $25 administration fee, if you withdrew before 12:00 noon on August 8, 2026.
- After that, registration and costume fees are non-refundable.
If you are joining the MainStage ensemble now, after auditions:
- Give it four weeks. If after four full weeks of rehearsals your performer decides theatre is not for them, tell us and we will refund $150 of your enrollment fee, the costume portion.
- Your monthly payments do not start until after that, so nothing else will have been taken.
On either route, if you withdraw later in the season any fees already paid are non-refundable, but no further payments will be due, so you’re released from the rest of the payment plan.
Can I cancel after enrolling?
Yes. Which terms apply depends on when you joined, so the full detail is in “What’s your refund policy?” above. The short version: families who enrolled before auditions had a refund window that closed at noon on August 8, 2026; families joining the MainStage ensemble now have four weeks of rehearsals, after which we refund $150 of the enrollment fee if it turns out not to be for your performer. On either route, withdrawing later in the season means fees already paid are non-refundable but no further payments are due.
What happens if a payment fails or is declined?
If a payment fails, our system automatically retries over the following few days, and you’ll get an email each time it does. During this window, your subscription is paused (you’ll see this in your
My Account on pipaprograms.com). To get things back on track quickly, update your card under
My Account → Payment Methods, or just reply to any of the retry emails and we’ll help.
Schedule & commitment
Do you offer financial aid or scholarships?
We don’t run a formal financial aid program. Honestly, that comes down to fairness: short of asking to look inside families’ bank accounts, which is invasive and something we’d never do, verifying need really comes down to trust, and that’s genuinely hard to administer consistently. So rather than run a system that can’t be applied fairly, we’d rather just talk to you. If cost is a barrier to your child taking part, please reach out through our contact form at
pipaprograms.com/connect and we’ll see what we can work out together. We handle these conversations individually and in confidence.
How much rehearsal time is there?
Frozen Jr. rehearses weekly from September 2026 through the performances in spring 2027, with breaks built in around the major holidays. Your child rehearses on their cast’s evening, and we ask you to keep the whole window free:
- MainStage: Tuesdays, 4:15–7:30 PM
- Premier: Wednesdays, 4:15–7:30 PM
- Debut: Thursdays, 4:30–7:30 PM
No performer rehearses for the whole window. Each evening splits into two blocks with a short break between them, and your child is called for one of them. On MainStage and Premier evenings our younger ensemble groups rehearse 4:15–5:45 PM and featured performers and principals rehearse 6:00–7:30 PM. Which block your child is in depends on casting, so we confirm it once casting is set. Until then, please hold the full window.
Principals are also asked to keep some time free after the window on certain dates: until 9:00 PM for MainStage and Premier, and until 8:30 PM for Debut. This is most likely from January onward, and it is rarely used in full.
Tech week and performance dates are mandatory for everyone.
What’s the absence policy?
We know life happens, so each role tier has room for a set number of absences outside the mandatory dates:
- Ensemble: up to 6
- Featured: up to 5
- Principal: up to 4
Beyond that, additional absences may affect performance eligibility. Tech week and performance dates are mandatory for everyone.
Is this a full-season commitment, or can my child join partway through?
Frozen Jr. is a full-season commitment. Because it’s one production built as an ensemble, with roles, staging, and music learned and rehearsed together from September onward, we cast it at the start and the company stays together through to the show. That’s part of what makes it work: every performer is part of building the whole thing. We don’t usually take performers on partway through, since they’d be stepping into a show that’s already well underway. If you’re enrolling late and wondering whether there’s still a way in, reach out and we’ll tell you honestly what’s possible for the current season.
How are school, sports, and activity conflicts handled?
We know your child has a life outside the theatre, and we plan for it. When you enroll, you’ll submit your known conflicts up front, and we take those into account as we build the rehearsal schedule and make casting decisions. The earlier and more complete your conflict list, the better we can work around it. Once rehearsals are underway, the conflicts you’ve already told us about are accounted for; new ones that come up later should be flagged to us as soon as you know. The one firm boundary is that tech week and performances are mandatory for everyone, so those dates can’t be worked around.
What is tech week?
Tech week is the final stretch before opening, when everything comes together for the first time: the set, the lights, the sound, the costumes, and your child on the real stage. It’s when a show stops being a rehearsal and becomes a performance, and it’s genuinely one of the most exciting parts of the whole season. Because we’re pulling all those pieces together at the performance venue, tech week runs across several evenings in the week leading up to the show, and attendance at all of them is essential. MainStage and Premier hold tech week at Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center; Debut holds tech week at Backstage, our home theatre at PYT. We give you the exact tech week dates well in advance so you can plan around them.
Costumes
Is there a dress rehearsal, and is it mandatory?
Yes. In the days right before opening, each cast has a full dress rehearsal, a complete run of the show in full costume, hair, makeup, lights, and sound, exactly as it’ll be performed. It’s mandatory for the whole cast, because it’s the run that makes everything click into place before an audience arrives. Our MainStage and Premier casts also watch each other’s dress rehearsals, which is one of the quiet highlights of the week. Exact dress rehearsal dates go out with the tech week schedule, well in advance.
What costumes does PYT provide, and what do we bring from home?
We provide essentially all of it. Our team handles each performer’s costuming, drawing from our own costume stock and ordering or making pieces specially for the production. That’s what your costume fee goes toward. And your child keeps one costume piece at the end of the season as a memento of the show. There are a few simple basics we ask families to supply from home, such as undergarments and personal items, and if a show calls for anything specific beyond that, you’ll get a clear, itemized list with plenty of lead time, never a last-minute scramble. Occasionally a principal role calls for a particular item specific to that character. In those cases our team sources it for you, and you simply purchase it through StageHand, no hunting it down yourself. If that applies to your child, we’ll let you know early and be clear about exactly what’s needed.
What is character design day?
Character design day is a working session for our principal and featured performers, where we develop the look and feel of their specific characters, so costumes, hair, and makeup for those roles are planned thoughtfully rather than pulled together at the end. If your child is cast in a principal or featured role, we’ll let you know whether there’s anything to bring; otherwise it’s run entirely by our team. Ensemble performers’ looks are handled through the regular costume and fitting process rather than a separate design day.
Performances & volunteering
When are costume fittings, and what if a costume doesn’t fit?
Costume fittings happen in the fall, near the start of the season. That timing surprises some families who expect them closer to the show, but it’s deliberate: many of our costumes are made and ordered specially, so we need measurements early to have everything ready and right by performance time. Our team runs fittings cast by cast, and if something doesn’t fit perfectly, that’s exactly what the process is for. We alter and adjust as the show approaches so every performer is comfortable and looks the part on stage. You don’t need to do anything except make sure your child attends their fitting; we take it from there.
How many performances are there, and what are the dates?
Each cast performs a full run of the show, all in 2027.
MainStage & Premier perform at Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center:
- Premier: Fri, April 9 (7:00 PM) · Sat, April 10 (7:00 PM) · Sun, April 11 (2:30 PM)
- MainStage: Sat, April 10 (10:30 AM & 3:00 PM) · Sun, April 11 (10:00 AM)
Debut performs at Backstage, our home theatre at PYT:
- Fri, April 30 (6:00 PM) · Sat, May 1 (3:00 PM & 6:30 PM) · Sun, May 2 (3:00 PM)
We’ll confirm exact call times, when your child needs to arrive, well in advance.
What happens on opening and closing night? Do parents help?
Opening and closing are the celebration the whole season builds toward. Your child will have a set call time before each performance, when they need to arrive to get into costume and makeup and warm up, which we’ll give you in advance. Closing night includes strike: taking down the set and packing up the production. That’s a moment we really do need parent hands on deck, so helping with strike is part of every family’s commitment. There’s also an end-of-season cast celebration for our MainStage and Premier casts. We’ll send the specifics on call times, strike, and the celebration as the performances approach.
Communication & logistics
Are there volunteer opportunities for parents?
Yes, and they’re appreciated. There’s one thing we ask of every family: helping with strike, the take-down of the set after the final performance. It’s a big all-hands moment and it’s part of being part of the production. Beyond that, there are lots of optional ways to pitch in across the season, costumes, front-of-house, and more, some ongoing and some one-time. None of those are required, but many parents tell us getting involved is one of the best ways to feel part of the experience alongside their child. We’ll share how to sign up as the season gets going.
How will I get updates during the season, and how often?
You’ll hear from us regularly and predictably. We’d rather over-communicate the things that matter than leave you guessing. Your hub for everything is StageHand, our family platform, where rehearsal schedules, what’s coming up, costume and show information, and anything time-sensitive all live in one place. We’ll always be clear about what needs your action and what’s just for your awareness. You’ll get email notifications whenever there’s something new on StageHand, so adding our address to your contacts helps make sure those alerts don’t land in spam.
How do I reach you in an emergency during a rehearsal or show?
For anything urgent while your child is at rehearsal or a performance, you’ll have a direct contact number for our on-site team. We provide this after enrollment so you always have a fast way to reach the people who are actually with your child. For everything non-urgent, enrolled families message us through StageHand, our family platform, where all your communication with us lives in one place and you get email notifications when there’s something new. If you’re not enrolled yet, our contact form at
pipaprograms.com/connect reaches the right person and gets you a reply within 48 business hours.
Beyond this season
Where do I submit allergy, medical, or photo-permission information?
After you enroll, we’ll send a short onboarding step where you can give us any allergy, medical, or accessibility information we should know, along with your photo and media permission preferences. This makes sure the team supporting your child has what they need from day one. If anything changes during the season, you can update us anytime.
What if we have to move away during the season?
We understand that sometimes life changes in ways you can’t plan for, like a family relocating. If something like that happens, please talk to us as early as you can. While our enrollment works as a commitment to the full production, we treat genuinely exceptional situations with care and on an individual basis. Reach out through our contact form at
pipaprograms.com/connect and we’ll work through it with you.
How does enrolling for next season work?
Enrolling in Frozen Jr. is just for this production. It doesn’t automatically roll you into next season. Each season has its own enrollment and audition cycle. As a current family, you’ll get priority access when the next season opens, and we’ll always reach out to you first, so there’s nothing you need to do now beyond Frozen, and you won’t miss out. (Auditions for the following season typically happen the spring after.)