Teen Musical Theater of Oregon

Teen Musical Theater of Oregon
Teen Musical Theater of Oregon Logo
Type	Theater Organization
Founder	John Taylor
Founding Date	2005
Executive Director	Stephen McCandless
Location	Medford, Oregon
Theaters Used	Ashland Armory Southern Oregon University Crater High School The Craterian
Number of Seasons	8
Number of Productions	19

Teen Musical Theater of Oregon (TMTO) is a youth theater program in Medford, Oregon produced by Craterian Performances along with Next Stage Repertory Company. TMTO is celebrated for high quality performances in the Collier Center for the Performing Arts where the company has put on many award winning musicals. Teen Musical Theater of Oregon includes kids age 13 - 19 but will sometimes add children age 9 - 12, known as Children's Musical Theater of Oregon, depending on the show. Along with children and teens of this age, Teen Musical Theater will sometimes add "Guest Stars" to the shows who take on roles such as Daddy Warbucks in Annie and The Man In Chair from The Drowsy Chaperone. TMTO will generally put on three productions a year - a spring show, a summer show, and a winter show. TMTO will occasionally produce concerts with a smaller, selected cast.

Teen Musical Theater began back in 2006 with a spring production of Grease. At that time the production was called Children's Musical Theater of Ashland (CMTA) until it was later renamed Children's Musical Theater of Oregon (CMTO). The company was founded by composer and keyboardist John Taylor and his wife Rhonda Taylor. His inspiration to found this organization came from the impact John P. Healy Jr. had on him when he was a part of San Jose Children's Musical Theater. Shortly after the 2008 summer production of Oklahoma!, Children's Musical Theater of Oregon was adopted by Craterian Performances. During the spring 2010 performance of Will Rogers Follies, a new branch of Children's Musical Theater of Oregon was created, called Teen Musical Theater of Oregon. While CMTO is still a working entity of the organization, it has taken a back seat allowing TMTO to produce the majority of the Musical Theater of Oregon's productions.

The usual rehearsal process for a TMTO show will last 6 - 8 weeks. Teens will generally be called to rehearsal 5 days a week with days spanning from 3 - 5 hours. Rehearsals include vocal teachings, dance rehearsals and acting workshops. Members of the creative teams that TMTO has seen has included John Taylor, Cailen McCandless and Doug Warner, (who started his own theater company called Next Stage Repertory Company, also under the wing of Craterian Performances.)