Janet Stanford is a theatre artist and administrator who is recognized as a national leader in Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). Her mission is to open hearts, inspire minds and ignite imaginations through live theatre. She is an advocate for access to arts experiences for ALL children and believes that a creative habit of mind helps people of all ages to lead their best life while contributing in positive ways to their communities. Janet is proud that the State of Maryland consistently ranks in the top 5 for its support of the Arts.
In her three decades as the Founding Artistic Director of Imagination Stage (Bethesda), Janet wrote and directed dozens of plays for children, commissioned 60 new works from diverse playwrights for the field, introduced Theatre for the Very Young to the USA, and reached non-traditional audiences with social justice themes.
Settling in Maryland in the 1980’s, Janet served as adjunct faculty at Catholic, American and Georgetown Universities as well as Goucher and Mount Vernon Colleges. In addition, she took advantage of several travel grants in order to learn how arts practices for youth compare around the world. Her visits to Scandinavia, Europe, South America, the U.K., Canada, and China led to projects at Imagination Stage with playwrights, theatre companies and guest artists from abroad. Janet is a strong believer in international exchange and has seen how new perspectives open up when artists with different training and cultural practices collaborate.
Janet now freelances as a playwright, stage director and teacher. Her plays are published by Dramatic Publishing, and Plays for New Audiences. She is the 2017 winner of the Harold Oaks Award for Excellence and Innovation in TYA, as well as the recipient of the 2024 Imagine Award for Lifetime Achievement and Adventure Theatre’s inaugural Visionary Award.