Experience Orlando Family Stage’s world premiere of Junie B. Jones in BOO! …and I Mean It! this October.

Orlando Family Stage has a long-standing reputation for creating unforgettable productions for audiences and actors of all ages, with an emphasis on empowering youth. Its passionate team discovered the best way to instill curiosity, bravery, and empathy in children is to use the arts as a vehicle which led them to offer classes and experiences to everyone from newborns to high school. 

“It used to be that pre-K was the youngest we programmed for, but then we realized that we were missing four years of childhood development, so we developed a whole series,” says Artistic Director Jeffrey M. Revels, who has witnessed the impact of theater upon children at Orlando Family Stage for over 20 years. 

The programming begins with “Baby and Me” classes and progresses with the child’s age through “Story Stroll,” and “Theatre for the Very Young” 30-minute interactive plays, before graduating to general productions and classes. 

“Now we have developed a very clear stepping stone system of how a child can grow with the theatre,” Revels says. 

Through original stories as well as adaptations of literature and familiar characters, Orlando Family Stage exhibits productions that are immersive, teach life skills and inspire audiences to have a lifelong affinity for theater. This season, multigenerational favorite Junie B. Jones, will be the central character of a new play premiering at Orlando Family Stage: Junie B. Jones in BOO! …and I Mean It! 

“I always want to make sure that we are bringing stories that are relevant to children today, because that’s what the best theater does: It shows us what’s going on in our world. But, I also want to make sure that we bring classic stories that we grew up loving as well,” explains Revels. “You’ll see contemporary new titles, but you’ll also see old classics like Anne of Green Gables, Tom Sawyer or The Boxcar Children—and children get to learn those stories here. Then hopefully, they’re going off and reading those stories.”

Junie B. has been on Orlando Family Stage’s stage before, but Junie B. Jones in BOO! …and I Mean It! was developed from a grant awarded to the theater by Kiwanis Club of Orlando during its 100th year celebration to support inclusive programs that benefit local children. Orlando Family Stage was chosen to receive $100,000 to develop new artistic works. Revels explains that in producing shows on-site, the theater could then license them out to other theaters to continuously fund new productions. Local schools frequently attend shows as a field trip, and the advance demand was so high that extra performances were added.

“We wanted one of the first plays that we did with this Kiwanis grant to be a recognizable title that would attract the attention of other theaters,” says Revels. “I have a huge stack of books in my office that we would love to get to. But then I thought: Let’s choose a really popular character. We have done six different Junie B. Jones stories at this theater over the past 20 years, and she’s always been a huge audience favorite.”

The show is an amalgamation of two books—one of which is the title of the play and the other is Junie B. Jones and the Yucky Blucky Fruitcake—features a school carnival, which becomes a Halloween carnival in the play. It is written by Allison Gregory, who has worked with Orlando Family Stage before and is endorsed by the family of the late original book author Barbara Park.

“They named her one of the executive producers on an upcoming Junie B. Jones movie, so they really trust her with the Junie B. Jones universe—or ‘Juniverse,’” Revels affirms.

The play follows Junie B. Jones as she prepares for Halloween, nervously expecting bats, monsters, vampires and candy corn that is actually a vegetable. Throughout the story, the audience will watch her face her fears and learn that being brave helps one realize that things are not as scary as they seem. The full scope of the production provides an atmosphere of whimsy and entertainment with theatrical effects like costumes, puppets and more.

“There are two big fantasies that come to life in her brain, because a huge part of Junie B. Jones is what goes on in her head, us understanding her thought processes and how we get from A to B by going a million different directions. There are two moments in the play that [are] not in the books, this is the playwright’s invention along with working with us in developing these flights of fancy,” Revels illustrates. 

Chelsea Talmadge, a former student of Orlando Family Stage who went on to act in Stranger Things and Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, will be returning as Junie B. for this production. Performances begin Sept. 30 and continue through Nov. 1. For those who cannot attend this must-see experience, Orlando Family Stage is now showing P.Nokio: A Hip-Hop Musical with a jam-packed schedule ahead that includes A Charlie Brown Christmas and Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Musical.

“Theater utilizes all the art forms and supports various learning styles,” says Revels. “Everyone can find their place in the theater. Everyone can be a theatre person!”