Utah Theatre Association

The Utah Theatre Association was formed by a group of theatre educators that wanted to create a forum where high school theatre students could meet with college and university representatives to learn about their programs and audition for acceptance to programs and scholarships. Early conferences were held in conference rooms of Salt Lake City hotels. The UTA conference expanded, and the board started to bring in the theatre professionals to teach specialized workshops to conference attendees.

The Utah Theatre Association sponsors the annual conference in conjunction with the International Thespian Society and UTA is still committed to introducing high school students to representatives from college and university theatre programs. UTA has built a strong scholarship fund, and this year, the Utah Theatre Association, along with conference sponsors Oasis Stagewerks and the International Thespian Society gave out over $5,000 in scholarships and awards to promising actors, designers, and playwrights.

In recent years, the Utah Theatre Association has expanded its scope to become a resource for theatre educators. The Utah Theatre Association board of directors is comprised of educators from public and private schools in Utah with representatives from middle schools and high schools. Every college and university in Utah has also named a representative to the board. Over the last three years, the Utah Theatre Association has built ties to the Utah State Office of Education. They are now committed to offering workshops geared towards current and prospective theatre educators at our conferences. The USOE has approved the Utah Theatre Association to offer re-licensure credits to educators that participate in the UTA conferences.