As announced yesterday, Knoxville Children’s Theatre is purchasing The Foundry. As part of that story, I also chatted with Sien Moon, Executive Director of KCT, about the origins and mission of this 18 year program coming to downtown Knoxville and the World’s Fair Park. Moon noted that, even after all this time, “a lot of people still don’t know we’re here or that we exist.” So, I wanted to introduce you.
I’ve been a fan of Knoxville Children’s Theatre for years as a patron and as a teacher of drama as literature. I love theatre and have found myself gravitating towards the subject through my early articles this first year writing for Inside of Knoxville. I was fortunate enough to discover theatre early when I was growing up in upper East Tennessee. That has led to seeing live performances around the area, country and now the world, even getting scolded once for breaking a rule at the Globe Theatre in London. Knoxville Children’s Theatre is opening that same pathway for younger audiences here in Knoxville.
As a teacher, I’ve used several plays as core texts in my literary instruction, including multiple works by Shakespeare. Through KCT’s gift voucher program, I’ve been able to send my students to experience their first live stage performances. And, one of my most rewarding moments as a teacher was seeing a former student to whom I taught Shakespeare perform as a lead in a Shakespearean play at KCT.
The Mission and Focus of Knoxville Children’s Theatre
I asked Moon about the core mission of Knoxville Children’s Theatre. She told me that they aspire to “inspire creativity in children through the production of theater…our biggest focus is that we want every child to have an opportunity to participate in the arts.” Children are not charged to be involved in productions, allowing families of all socioeconomic backgrounds to enroll their children.
Moon also noted that coverage is extended to their academy classes, which do have a fee. She noted that “we do not turn a child away for their lack of ability to pay. So, if the child cannot afford the tuition, we have scholarship funds set up that we have nice, generous donors that pay for those scholarships…in the history of the theater for 17 years, we’ve never turned away a child and won’t ever.”
She added that “another big piece of our mission is kids develop[ing] their creativity…we’re trying to fill a niche [for] so many children that are artistic and…drawn to the arts. They may not be an athlete and they may not fit into your stereotypical [activities]. There’s lots of opportunities for kids to do athletics in our community, but there aren’t many opportunities for them to be involved in the arts where there’s not a huge cost involved. We also believe that every child has a creative side so we want them to develop that creativity and use it in whatever way they can.” She told me that children will often find themselves and their people while at KCT.
A Short History of Knoxville Children’s Theatre
Knoxville Children’s Theatre was founded in 2008 by Zack Allen with a mission to engage children creatively in theatre. For their first three or four plays, the theatre was at different locations around town. Allen then found a building near the Old Grey Cemetery (currently Remedy Coffee). After four years at this location, KCT moved to the Central Avenue building (in 2013) with Urban Guy covering one of their performances in 2015. Allen unexpectedly passed in 2018 as KCT was seeing “good, steady, consistent growth.”
The mission continued; however, the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, and most theatre stages around the world went dark. Moon noted that “we recovered from COVID really quickly, quicker than theaters across the country, even quicker than Broadway.” For the five years since, many productions have sold out, and academy classes have had waiting lists, prompting the move to the larger space at the Foundry. The “KCT Next Stage” campaign will lay the foundation for expanding KCT’s reach to more children.
Scope of KCT Programs and Performances
As noted yesterday, all functions, including actors, set, costume, lighting and prop designers, stage managers and in some instances, directors are children. Knoxville Children’s Theatre stages ten productions per year, around 146 performances. Productions have 14 to 18 performances with some on the higher end to incorporate school day matinees.
KCT primarily offers matinees for local elementary schools with source materials typically originating from books or reading material. Recent matinees have included James and the Giant Peach and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Matinees are limited as student actors and designers are not given a blanket excused absence by school systems. KCT has a form that they send home that families then use for their children involved in the production.
In addition to these matinees, KCT offers a gift voucher programs for a few productions each year. My high school students recently benefited from the voucher program for the 2024 production of Beowulf. Since field trips are limited for high school students, the voucher program helps to engage older students.
KCT offers academy classes in both performance and behind-the-scenes roles. Acting 101, Advanced Acting, Improv and Audition Techniques cater to aspiring performers, while Set, Costume, Prop and Lighting Design classes focus on technical skills. Workshops, Talkbacks, and Master Classes have featured guest teachers specializing in set design or stage management from touring Broadway shows.
The academy has six terms, scheduled along with seasonal school terms. In the summer, KCT hosts around 20 camps. Classes vary from term to term with most six weeks long at an hour and a half once a week. Saturday classes are also available. Moon told me that KCT “keeps our classes small. Generally, they’re mostly 10 to 12 students per class. We probably have 600…per year.” If you would like to enroll your child in a class, visit the Academy Classes and Camps registration page.
About every three years, KCT takes a group to New York for a week. Students have intensive workshops with Broadway actors and designers. Students see four or five Broadway plays (and do some touristy things).
When asked how KCT gets opportunities here and in New York, Moon said, “most people want to help you, and especially if you’re trying to train children or get children involved, most people are more than willing to help.” She added that “KCT has had talkbacks with professionals from Broadway touring productions of Beetlejuice and Mean Girls and from Broadway productions of Lightning Thief, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Disney’s Aladdin, Moulin Rouge, and Hamilton to name a few.”
Staff includes a musical director and a choreographer for musicals, and a director works with students on the production. KCT pays royalties for most productions, coming from various royalty houses, though they typically produce in-house productions like Cinderella or Beowulf. Funding for all productions and programs comes from a mixture of earned revenues and donors. Moon shared that “about 70% of our revenues are earned. And then the other 30% are individual donors or corporate donors. And then we do get a small grant from the city, and we get a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.”
Knoxville Children’s Theatre also has a program for adults with intellectual disabilities.
Impact of KCT
KCT’s impact falls across a range of outcomes. “I think a lot of children will come here and they’ll find this theater and they’ll find their passion. They’ll also find their people. They’ve been having a hard time finding their place or their thing. Every child needs a thing or a place or a passion. And they find this and it completely changes their lives. I’ve seen so many children come into the theater and you would not recognize them as the same child as when they came in and when they left.”
First and foremost, Moon explained that life skills like teamwork, collaboration, responsibility, confidence and a sense of self all result from students in their programs. Most students do not go on to perform or work in related fields. Many become “doctors, lawyers, graphics designers,” Moon shared as examples of career fields former students have pursued.
Some, however, do pursue a career in a related field.
Moon told me that “our first student intern who directed a play for us as a student, went on to college, and then moved to New York. And she has won two Tonys. And she won those two Tonys almost just about two years after going to New York, which is the highest…award you can get in theater. And she’s from Knoxville, grew up here, went to Bearden High School, went to UT, and we’re really proud of her.” When asked about KCT, Ashlee Latimer sent the following:
“KCT provides the unique opportunity for young artists in East Tennessee to work on every aspect of a theatrical production throughout the entire year, which profoundly impacted the trajectory of my life and career. At KCT, I learned how to manage my time, collaborate as part of a team, and work toward group-oriented goals—all while making friends and building the confidence to be myself. There’s truly no other place like KCT, and I am thrilled that expanding to the Foundry means more young people and their families will have the chance to participate in the crucial community work that KCT does.”
KCT also provides a pipeline of performers and stage directors for productions in Pigeon Forge and with television production companies.
Moon also noted that “study after study after study shows that children that are involved in theater have better academic performance. They do better on standardized tests. And it also helps with literacy, with reading. There’s some studies…that say if you get a child to the theater before the age of eight, it will increase their academic performance.”
Upcoming 2025 Season
With James and the Giant Peach just closing and the final production at the Central Avenue facility, Mean Girls, Jr., kicking off, eight other productions will be staged in the 2025 season, all at the Foundry. Productions like The Sword in the Stone (the first at the Foundry on April 4), Twelve Dancing Princesses and Winnie the Pooh will appeal to younger audiences. Productions like The Miracle Worker, The Hobbit and The Crucible will appeal to older children and youth. As I have seen plays across the gamut, all of them will appeal to adults. And, during the holiday season, KCT will stage a musical version of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
The full schedule is available on the 2025 Season page. Ticket prices with the ability to purchase are available under Current Shows. I would strongly recommend that you try to catch one last show at their current location and again after the move to the Foundry. KCT is another pillar in the foundation of a lively theatre scene in Knoxville.