Crescent City Lights Youth Theater

Crescent City Lights Youth Theater (also known as Stage to Stage Inc) celebrates its 24nd year of theater training of youth (ages 7 - 15) from Greater New Orleans from different backgrounds. CCLYT transforms the lives of our young performing artists. With instruction by artistic mentors in the theater arts, the talents of each child are developed along with their self-confidence, artistic creativity and job skills. And they get to do what they love, PERFORM!

CCLYT is part of a theater scene that is vastly different from 1993 when we were one of only three theater programs for children. Yes, that was it. Now families have much more to choose from for their talented children. Yet our niche was (and still is) to provide quality training for children at a price that is affordable to low and middle income families. Crescent City Lights' only focus is quality performing arts training for children.
You ask, "What makes CCLYT a special place to learn theater?"
+ Our entire mission is children's theater training.
+ CCLYT instructs in small classes or casts to focus on bringing out the best in each child's talent with a special technique developed for over 20 years.
+ We seek out creative musical material that will benefit the talents of the children in the cast as well as selecting works with lots of parts for the entire cast.
+ The atmosphere is one of positive camaraderie that builds a child's confidence in their talents. The children meet kids from across Greater New Orleans who all have the common interest in performing arts. Many a lifelong friendship began right in our rehearsals.
+ The theater artist/mentors who work with the children bring out the best in each cast member and love what they are doing!
+ The cast has so much fun that they don't want rehearsals to end!
"What does your programming look like in 2018?"
If you are reading this after April 29, then our first performance of 2017 has already happened. (The photo of the group in rehearsal clothes is of this cast from 2017.) Our March- April program of weekend night rehearsals with an 10 - 15 member cast had its finale with a performance In the Kid's Tent of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, on Saturday, April 29th at 5:15 p.m., marking the 21st year that CCLYT has performed! A hallmark of CCLYT is that the cast performs with a live jazz band of New Orleans finest professional musicians.
What's next? CCLYT programming has been refocused to emphasize theater skills training with life skills training without the trappings of a major musical production. A summer program is being planned for July based on the results of our April program (which is underway at the time of this writing). To find out more, sign up for our email list at our website.
"Where are your alumni now?'
Great question! Many of our alumni are professional artists working from coast-to-coast. Lyric Lewis (1995-1997) got her feet wet in theater starting at the age of 8. Now she is co-starring in the new primetime NBC series AP Bio that premiered in March, 2018. Donald Jones, Jr, (1997-2005) is performing in his 3rd Broadway show, "Frozen" following runs in "Aladdin" and "Chicago." Lindsey Reynolds (2006-2013) is a NOCCA voice graduate and is now a sophomore attending the renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Ms. Reynolds will sing the leading roles of "Monica" in "The Medium" at the Curtis Institute in May and "Adina" in Donizetti's "Elixir of Lover" at the Chautauqua Festival in New York in July of 2018. Andrew Brader (1995-2000) is a professional dancer currently performing with the "Complexions" ballet company. Casey Ferrand (1997-2004) is a news reporter on WDSU-TV. Megan Braden-Perry (1997-2000) is a writer whose book, "New Orleans Snow," about New Orleans snowballs, was published in spring of 2017 by University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press. Of our most recent alumni, Jessica Mixon (2006-2009) has been nominated for a Big Easy Award for best actress for her work in "Pippin," at Le Petit Theatre in 2016. Sean-Michael Bruno (2008-2011) was featured actor in the HBO series, "Treme." Tucker Godbold (2008-2010) graduated from NOCCA in Musical Theater and is a double presidential scholarship awardee from Ball State University. These are just a handful of the accomplishments of CCLYT alumni! For the younger children, the skills that they are learning in CCLYT help them in school both with leaderhship and academis. Johan Lowe (2009-2011) is a senior at St. Augustine High School and both a band member and band captain!

Testimonials

From Lindsey Reynolds (CCLYT, 2006-2013 and NOCCA voice major, 2013-2016), "The skills I learned from an early age with Crescent City Lights helped me become a student in voice at NOCCA and, now, a voice major at the Curtis Institute of Music with a full scholarship. CCLYT prepares kids for life...