CYT Tucson

CYT is awesome! All five of my children have acted in CYT and it made a hugely positive impact in their lives. I highly recommend CYT to anyone that wants to build character in their kids all while receiving a first class acting experience!

I am one of the very first Tucson Christian Youth Theater students! I joined at the age of 9 in 2005 or 2006 (I can’t remember which) and graduated out at age 18 in 2012. First hand I watched CYT Tucson grow from a small organization of 20 kids, to a huge cast of 100, all the while being on a scholarship! And not even once did the organization and staff falter from their mission statement. CYT has provided a secure and safe environment for so many kids who needed to find their way and explore their passion. If it wasn’t for CYT I would have never met my husband or become a dance major! I have made friendships that will last my whole life, and gained mentors that are always looking out for me! I can’t wait to visit Tucson and see what those talented people will be performing next!

Do not pay up front without seeing what they offer for your talented teen actor. Do not register until you have visited the camp or classes.
The returning children and those that belong to the church know each other and get along well within their group. This group is a younger group.
Not receiving any refund at all hurts.
The staff is friendly.

I don’t like how this organization conceals and downplays the fact that they are religion-​influenced. The ‘C’ in CYT stands for Christian. They claim that CYT is not a church but it is run by a church and the classes are held in churches. So, it is definitely influenced by religion. This fact does not become apparent until closer and attentive inspection.
I paid for my children and I to attend a CYT performance and watched the entire thing before we were alerted to the fact that their organization was involved with a church. The performance was held in the Live Theater Workshop in Tucson. CYT announced after their performance that they offered theater classes for children which, upon hearing, one of my children requested for me to get more information. So, it was only after paying for my family to attend their performance and then meeting with CYT personnel afterward that their church affiliation become evident to me. I think that was dishonest because, had they made it clear up front that they were affiliated with a religious institution, I would have had the desire to look elsewhere for secular theater classes as well as not bring my children to their performance. Religious influence is a controversial piece of information to leave out of their promotional efforts and to even seem to disguise.
It appears that CYT simply assumes that patrons of their theater performances and parents signing up their children for their theater classes are interested in supporting and participating in Christian-​influenced theater classes instead of providing disclosure up front for the purpose of parents having informed consent. As if they assume that everyone looking for theater performances and classes is comfortable with a religious institution affiliation simply by default. Full disclosure would be the respectable thing to do instead of presenting their programs to the public as secular when they are not.