The Judith Enyeart Reynolds School of the Performing Arts for Springfield Little Theatre

The Judith Enyeart Reynolds School of the Performing Arts for Springfield Little Theatre — The Judy, to just about everyone — is Springfield Little Theatre’s home for education. Less than a mile from the historic Landers Theatre, this 1908 schoolhouse has been a place of learning for more than a century. Today, its classrooms, studios, rehearsal rooms, and stages are filled with artists learning, creating, collaborating, and discovering what they can do. Thousands of students walk through its doors each year for classes, camps, workshops, rehearsals, and performances.

With two performance venues, dance and music studios, classrooms, an art room, a film lab, and spaces designed for artists to grow, The Judy gives Springfield Little Theatre room to invest in what comes next.

237 South Florence Avenue, Springfield, Missouri 65806

The Judy is named in honor of Judith Enyeart Reynolds, a lifelong educator whose legacy continues in a building dedicated to learning and the arts. A graduate of Missouri State University, Judy worked in the university’s English department from 1966 until her retirement in 1994, nearly thirty years on a campus she loved. Her husband, Tim Reynolds, taught theatre in Springfield Public Schools. Together, they spent their careers in classrooms and shared a belief in the lasting impact the arts can have in a young person’s life.

When the C.W. Titus Foundation, where Tim serves as a trustee, made the gift that helped bring the building into Springfield Little Theatre’s hands, Tim chose to name the school in Judy’s honor.  Judy has since passed away, but the building that carries her name continues the work that mattered so deeply to them both. Each week of the year, a new generation enters its classrooms, studios, and performance spaces to learn, create, and grow.

Built in 1908, one year before The Landers Theatre, as the McDaniel School, the building was named for Joseph McDaniel, a pioneer Springfield businessman, partner in the McElhaney, Haggard & McDaniel Mercantile Co., and president of the Greene County National Bank.

For sixty years, McDaniel served as an elementary school. In 1968, as enrollment declined, Springfield Public Schools converted the building into a vocational extension center; historic records also describe it as an adult education center. In the decades that followed, the building continued to serve the community as home to the district’s Parents As Teachers program, early childhood education, and other community services.

In 2002, Springfield Public Schools offered McDaniel for sale alongside four other buildings—Doling, Oak Grove, Pepperdine, and Tefft. McDaniel received the most interest, with four bids ranging from $150,000 to $212,000. A developer purchased the property with plans for apartments or lofts, but the building was instead renovated for office use and later became home to Bryan College. More than a century after its construction, the building’s purpose has evolved—but education and community have remained at the heart of its story.

Springfield Little Theatre first leased the building in 2018 and acquired it in 2019, gaining three and a half floors and approximately 24,300 square feet. The purchase gave Springfield Little Theatre room to grow, expanding a thriving education program, strengthening community outreach and partnerships with Springfield Public Schools, and creating additional spaces for performance, learning, and gathering.

The $1.4 million purchase was made possible through individual gifts to Springfield Little Theatre’s Next Stage Capital Campaign, a $250,000 gift from an angel donor, and a $1 million grant from the C.W. Titus Foundation.

Neoclassical in design and built to last, the former McDaniel School is designated a Springfield Historic Site. Preserving the character of this remarkable building while preparing it to serve generations to come remains an important part of Springfield Little Theatre’s stewardship of The Judy.

Renovations have adapted the historic building for contemporary teaching and performance while preserving its original character and its long legacy as a place of education and community betterment. The Judy is home to two performance venues, The Reynolds Auditorium and The Studio Theatre, as well as dance studios, private voice and instrumental studios, classrooms, an Art Studio, a Media Lab, and a small Costume Studio. The building also includes a parent lounge, five administrative offices, event storage, and outdoor space for recreation and special events.

The Reynolds Auditorium seats 150 and is equipped to a professional standard, giving students and adults alike the opportunity to work with the same kinds of tools and technology they will encounter in a working theatre. It is more than a performance venue. It is a learning lab—one where artists can take what they have practiced in the classroom and put it to work onstage. judy-about-page-copy

EXPLORE OUR EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Since acquiring The Judy in 2019, Springfield Little Theatre has continued investing in the building so that it can better serve students, artists, families, audiences, and the wider community. An elevator now provides access to every floor of The Judy, including stage level. Additional improvements have included a new loading dock, resurfacing of the parking lot, roof repairs, tuckpointing and retaining wall work, and complete replacement of the building’s HVAC system.  This work has been made possible through the generosity of individual donors, a $500,000 grant from the C.W. Titus Foundation, and a $2,182,500 state appropriation administered by the Missouri Arts Council.