1978 - The Good Company Players Junior Company Is Formed

- Auditions for young people's parts in GCP's first shows at the Music Hall draw an astonishing 133 auditioners. The amount of talent in the community is clearly impressive.

- Youngsters in the cast of Gypsy and in The Sound of Music perform a short singing and dancing pre-show. An incredibly popular feature, the Junior Company Pre-Show becomes a regular Music Hall attraction.

- As with GCP's shows, The Junior Company has open auditions three times a year. Kids from all over the Valley, with no experience or lots of it, try out. Those in the Company try out each time to continue participating. 

- The Junior Company is open to any young person aged 8 to 16. The size of the company has ranged from 12 to 22 kids. Each company formed performs in two consecutive pre-shows.

Facts & Figures

- Longest continuous participation: Shandon Youngclaus, who performed in his first pre-show at age 9 in the Spring of 1982 and hung up his tap shoes in the Spring of 1987 without ever missing a performance. And he grew nearly 3 feet in the process.

- Largest family group: The Hicks family. Stephen & Pam, the two oldest, appeared with the very first Junior Company. When the family moved to Oregon in 1992, the youngest Hicks, Hope, had just completed her first run with the Juniors. A total of 8 Hicks children were in the Junior Company.

- Members of the Junior Company have traveled many miles to participate. Commuters from communities as far away as Lemoore, Hanford, Dinuba and rural Madera County have worked with the Juniors.

- This past May, the 300th member of the Junior Company was cast: Annie Lundberg, age 15. Annie has worked with GCP in plays since she was 12, but the Carousel pre-show will mark her first Junior appearance.

Community Involvement

- Junior Company "alums" have grown older, they have become an extraordinary part of GCP's "adult" company - former Juniors have played major roles in GCP productions of Evita, My One & Only, Into the Woods, Oklahoma!, West Side Story, A Chorus Line and dozens more.

- In the 1997 Season alone, the title role in Annie Get Your Gun, ensemble performers in Oliver! and My Fair Lady, and leads in the Second Space production of The Dark at the Top of the Stairs: all played by former members of the Junior Company.

Junior Alums Turn Pro

- Performers who began their careers with GCP's Junior Company have appeared on Broadway in Beauty and The Beast, Miss Saigon, Rent, Peter Pan, Master Class, Ragtime, Les Miserables, and Carousel. Audra McDonald, who started with the Juniors at age 9, won Tony Awards for Carousel in '94, for Master Class in '96, and Ragtime in '98.

- Junior alumni have been in the national tours of such shows as Tommy, Dream Girls, Jekyl and Heide and The Full Monty (Heidi Blickenstaff), Peter Pan and Evita (Elisa Sagardia), Beauty and the Beast (Mike Jones), and Carousel (Sarah Uriarte, Duane Boutte).

- Regional theaters in Arizona and Washington D.C., Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco have showcased the work of former Juniors, as well as Off-Broadway theaters I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change (Andrea Chamberlain), cruise ships (Yvonna Kopacz and Shandon Youngclaus). Their voices have appeared on recordings and their studies have taken them to schools such as USC and Julliard and on Fulbright grant-funded trips to Germany to make films (Alison McDonald). They are runners up to Miss America (Tracy Hayes) and study opera in Europe (Richard Woods).

- Several Juniors have also been featured in TV presentations. Sharon Leal is presently filming her third season of Boston Public.  Audra McDonald was nominated for a 2001 Emmy Award for her participation Law and Order, Special Victims Unit, and received great reviews for her work in the Disney TV film, Annie.