Staging Musicals for Young Performers

Staging a play is one thing, but staging a musical is something quite different! A musical is many times more difficult because your key actors must be singers and your singers must perform as actors. You can spend as much as you like, make the show technically as complex or as simple as you prefer. The music, the lyrics, the dialogue, the pathos, the comedy, and ultimately the energy of the performance are the heart and life of a musical. Scenery, lighting, costumes, and special effects are secondary.

We've designed our musical comedies to accommodate this problem. With every show we provide a rehearsal/performance CD with professional voices to help teach the songs to your young performers. It can be used in practice by your cast or even as a back-up for the show itself.

To help everyone we published a book titled Staging Musicals for Young Performers.  It covers everything from selecting the right musical to casting, rehearsing, developing the right choreography, preparing the sets and props, and how to find or make your costumes. It gives details about all the basics with sample forms to keep everything organized, a glossary of theatrical and musical terms, and how to acquire performance rights and get parental volunteers to help with the show's many production details. The book was written by Maria Novelly and Adele Firth, an actress in repertory theatre. Both collaborators have taught English and drama in America and Europe. Novelly is also the author of Theatre Games for Young Performers.