Musical theatre studio in Brentwood
Footlight is a studio for singers, dancers and actors ages 8 to 17. Classes in voice, stage dance and acting run through the year, and every spring a cast takes an original musical to the stage.
The season
Each is an original, written for the students who will perform it. Every class brings a number to the first show, and the cast of the spring musical is chosen by audition.
A fall revue of songs, dances and short scenes. Every class brings a number to the stage, and families fill the room in November.
All four levels
Shown in November
A winter show of scenes and songs about the people who work around a theatre, written for the Chorus, Ensemble and Company levels.
Chorus, Ensemble and Company
Shown in February
Our spring musical: an original story with a full cast, a small band and three performances over one weekend in April. The cast is chosen by audition in January.
Cast by audition
Show weekend in April
Dates
Fall registration opens in June. Auditions are in January, and the show weekend is in April.
June
Returning and new families register on our enrollment page.
Late August
Visit, see the rooms and try a class before term begins.
Try a classEarly September
November
A revue with a number from every class.
January
A group workshop, then callbacks the same month.
April
Three performances over one weekend.
Sample dates.
Levels
Students join the level that matches their age, and move up when their teacher says they are ready.
Singing a melody with a group
Stage directions: upstage, downstage, left and right
Short dance combinations on a count
Saying a line to a scene partner
Your teacher talks with you and your family when a student is ready for Chorus. There is no set number of terms.
Singing in two parts
Jazz and tap steps for a number
Scene work with a partner
Learning lines and cues
Your teacher decides with you, as skills show in class and in Lantern Night.
Holding a harmony part
Longer jazz and tap combinations
Monologue and cold reading
Rehearsing a full scene with a cast
Your teacher decides with you, after a talk about the parts and numbers a student wants to work on.
Preparing a song cut and a monologue for auditions
Learning a dance combination quickly
Running a warm-up or a vocal part
Working on a role across a whole season
Company is the top level. Students stay as long as they are in the studio, and take on more of the show each season.
Sample levels.
Every student moves at their own pace.
Summer
Three weeks in June and July. Each one ends with a showing for families on Friday.
Showing 3 of 3
Write, rehearse and perform a short musical in five days.
Mornings are voice and dance. Afternoons are scenes and rehearsal. On Friday the group shows families what it made.
Learn a full ensemble number, a scene and a song.
Teens rehearse a number from first read to full cast, with a vocal warm-up each morning and a showing on Friday.
Pair a song with a scene and learn how they tell one story.
Students choose a song, build a short scene around it and work with the whole group on Friday.
Nothing matches that filter.
Sample sessions.
Dates and hours are set each year; our enrollment page has the latest.
Our teachers
Director and teacher
Hillary directs the spring musical and teaches ensemble and acting for the older levels. She has staged community and school productions across the county, and writes the story for each year's show.
Music director and voice teacher
Yasiel leads voice classes and plays piano for every rehearsal. He arranges the songs for each season's original shows.
Choreographer and dance teacher
Shardae teaches stage jazz and tap, sets the dances for each production and leads the Saturday audition lab.
Questions
Book a time on our enrollment page. Your student joins one class at the level that matches their age, wears clothes they can move in, and the teacher says afterward which level fits. Parents wait in the lobby.
No. Overture, for ages 8 and 9, starts with songs, steps and scenes. Older students who are new join the level for their age, and the teacher adjusts after a class or two.
Auditions are in January and run as a group workshop: each student learns a short song and a short dance, then reads a scene. Callbacks follow, and the cast list goes out in early February. Not every student is in the spring musical, and every class takes part in Lantern Night.
Clothes they can move in, with socks or sneakers for the first weeks. Stage dance classes then ask for jazz or tap shoes, and the show has its own costumes.
Yes, twice a year. The family policies page says when, and how recording works at the show.
A missed class can be made up in another class of the same style and level in the same term. Rehearsals for a show cannot be made up, so please tell us early.
Costumes, the production and tickets for guests are the extras. How tuition works explains what each is for, and our enrollment page has the figures.