New ‘Student Producer Program’ aims to help high school students learn the business of theater

The Student Producer Program (SP²), a new educational initiative for high school theater students, will officially launch later this month. The program is co-founded by director, choreographer and theater tech entrepreneur Jeff Whiting along with producer and local theater advocate Kevin Bradley. SP² will launch at an event at Open Jar Studios — also founded by Whiting — at 6 p.m. on Nov. 17. (The event is in conjunction with the “Center Stage” Experience screening and dance-along.)

SP² aims to impart the leadership and entrepreneurial skills required to put on a show, not simply perform in one. The program will host a 16-week educational course in producing for participating students. It will also provide access to integrated management software that will help students manage various aspects of their high school theater productions, including ticket pricing, sales strategy, marketing, community partnerships, budget tracking and weekly metrics. By providing these resources, the program says it also hopes to reduce that workload from already overextended educators, creating more sustainable school theater programs and helping students develop real-world skills.

“We spend years teaching students how to perform onstage, but very little time teaching them how to make a production happen,” said Whiting in a statement. “Every school musical is an opportunity to teach entrepreneurship, leadership, marketing and financial responsibility. SP² was created to give students those experiences while helping theater educators build stronger programs. The next generation of Broadway producers may already be sitting in high school classrooms.”

In addition, SP² has announced a partnership with the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) to give 10 select schools free access to the platform. Additional information, including application details for interested schools, is available on the website of the Educational Theatre Foundation, EdTA’s philanthropic arm. 

Both Bradley and Whiting have previously worked at the intersection of theater and technology. Whiting began his Broadway career as an associate director and assistant choreographer on shows like “The Scottsboro Boys” and “Bullets Over Broadway.” As previously mentioned, Whiting is the founder of Open Jar Studios as well as the production technology platform Stage Write Software. Under Whiting, Open Jar launched the Broadway Resource Guide, an online informational hub for theater professionals, in 2025. Whiting also serves as the board chair of the Stage Door Foundation, a nonprofit organization offering a developmental pipeline for new musicals, scholarships for artists to attend creative training programs and affordable rehearsal space rentals, the latter in partnership with Open Jar. 

Bradley is the creator of Front Row Maryland, an online listing service for high school theater productions. He is also a founding board member of the Stage Door Foundation and the founder of the 3AM Solutions Initiative, a sales intelligence consultancy and a collaborating organization behind SP².