Professional Theater for All Ages

Each year, Crescent City Lights Youth Theater provides professional theater experiences for young people – ages 7 to 17 – in the Greater New Orleans area. The theater offers a forum for collaboration of artists, designers and playwrights and enriches the entire community with its professional quality stage productions and classes. Crescent City Lights instills an early appreciation of literature, art and the performing arts in tomorrow's artists and patrons.

As a performing arts education program, Crescent City Lights’ mission is:

• To provide performing arts training in drama, voice and dance to the young people of New Orleans in a supportive, multi-cultural learning environment through quality instruction by professional performing artists.

• To foster the development of life skills (kindness, respect for others, personal responsibility, teamwork, and self discipline) and job skills (timeliness, preparedness, and work ethics) that result in forging lasting bonds between child performers, staff and families, transcending their diverse backgrounds to create a new community of artists.

Our Program Results

Kids who have worked with Crescent City Lights have not only learn theater skills but also consistently demonstrate increased self-confidence. The theater provides a positive, nuturing environment for children to hone their skills in the performing arts. In fact, Crescent City Lights has served as fertile ground for many to grow and develop their craft. Many have moved on to attend NOCCA/Riverfront (the performing arts high school in New Orleans) and have received scholarships to colleges across the country as arts majors whether theater, music, visual art or English. Many alumni are working in arts fields as adult professionals.

Most alumni credit their early exposure to the theater with the confidence and commitment they needed to pursue their dream. Over and over, alumni note how their experience with Crescent City Lights changed their lives in a positive way and set them on the track for future success.

History

Crescent City Lights Youth Theater began in 1993 when Julie Condy founded the Summer Stages Children’s Theater to provide affordable theater programs for children in the New Orleans area. The first production, How to Eat Like a Child, featured a cast of 15 children. In 1995, the troupe was incorporated under the name Stage to Stage as a 501c3 non-profit organization which we maintain to this day as our official nonprofit name.

Like so many organizations in New Orleans, Stage to Stage lost its home and many of its students as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Ever the visionary, Julie formed partnerships with the New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD) and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeast Louisiana as a way to help her own organization as well as several others devastated by the hurricane. So, the theater has changed its program name to reflect its year-round status in partnership with these organizations.

The theater has staged 24 musicals since 1993. More than 600 young people, from ages 7 to 17, have participated in the school year classes and summer productions.