San Diego Junior Theatre in downtown San Diego's Balboa Park holds the distinction of being the oldest children's theatre program in the United States, staging youth productions on El Prado since 1948. Six main-stage musicals per season deploy full casts of performers ages four through eighteen, and the school's 260-plus annual classes in acting, voice, and dance build performance skills that often begin with foundational instrument training at studios like Anna Mat's Music in nearby Bankers Hill. Originally established as the children's wing of The Old Globe Theatre, Junior Theatre became an independent nonprofit in 1971 and now stages productions on the 640-seat proscenium at the Casa del Prado Theatre. The curriculum tracks students from introductory camps at age three through advanced musical-theater intensives for teenagers, covering audition preparation, choreography, vocal projection, and ensemble staging. Productions include adaptations of Broadway titles built with student-designed sets and student-operated lighting and sound boards, layering technical training on top of vocal work that parallels the Orff-and-Kodaly choral curriculum at San Diego Children's Choir, another countywide youth-arts organization headquartered downtown. The most ambitious productions stage full Broadway-scale junior musicals with multi-set scenic builds, student-run technical crews operating follow spots and fly cues, and choreographed ensembles filling the 640-seat Casa del Prado proscenium.