All right all you Musical Theatre-lovin’ Stagelighters, it’s time to put your story into a Musical Theatre show.

If there was a musical about your life, what would it be called? What would it be about? Title your musical, create a logo for it, and write a short synopsis of it. Next, come up with three song titles for your musical.

Send your work to us at stagelightathome@gmail.com and we’ll “pitch it” to our audiences!

As a bonus, how many of the logos above can you name?

If you’re getting a little stir crazy being at home during this quarantine, channel those emotions and create a musical theatre performance based on “Annie”‘s It’s a Hard Knock Life!

Choreograph and create a music video using your own home as the stage. Include choreography that shows cleaning parts of your house or organizing or washing sheets! Have someone video for you, and maybe even edit the video to show different scenes around your house. Make sure you sing along! And if you can, put together a costume too!

We can’t wait to see your final product. Send your video to stagelightathome@gmail.com or tag us on social media @stagelightarts. Have fun!

What a week. What a wild, crazy, unprecedented experience we are all now living–ALL of us. The whole world.

We truly hope you are finding ways to move and stay healthy and keep dancing. And we hope you are finding joy in this new–but temporary!–normal.

As we come to the end of our first week social distancing and even quarantining in some cases, we’d like all our dancers and performers to take some time for self-reflection. Fill out this form, or type out your responses. We’d love to hear from you! Send us your responses at stagelightathome@gmail.com.

And keep that vision for your future strong and alive. We’re here to support you!

Dancers!! Today the amazing Debbie Allen is offering a FREE dance class LIVE on Instagram. Log in a little early in case those servers get overwhelmed.

Visit her page @therealdebbieallen for the class. Send us a picture or video of you to stagelightathome@gmail.com or tag us on social media @stagelightarts so we can see how you do!

And funny story… one time Ms. Alyssa auditioned for one of Debbie’s productions of Pinocchio. While Ms. Alyssa auditioned, Debbie Allen at an orange. That’s it. Just a funny memory she wanted to share with you!

There is no better time to try your hand at choreography. Choreographing material takes longer than one would think, and with more time on your hands due to social distancing, this is a skill Intermediate and Advanced performers can really be honing.

So here are some tips to choreographing! Choose one of your favorite musical theatre songs, and listen to it A LOT. Like, on repeat until the rest of your household feels like they’re going crazy. Pay attention to as many details in the song as possible: rises and falls, instrumentation, rhythmic patterns.

Then we suggest improvising. Let the music tell your body what it should do. Spend a few rounds listening and improvising. As you define more movement, start jotting it down on this Count Sheet:

The count sheet is also a useful place to highlight accents or changes in the music. Use this sheet as your roadmap to a completed musical theatre piece! Now, continue this process until you have a finished work.

Once you have your piece finished, film it and send it to us at stagelightathome@gmail.com. You never know, Ms. Lindsey might ask you to teach your choreography when we return from this closure! And while you’re at it, post a picture of yourself during your choreographic process and tag us @stagelightarts so we can see you all hard at work!

Don’t peek at the text below! This is supposed to challenge your improvisational skills, and we don’t want you to have any clues. Now, turn on some instrumental music and have someone read the prompt below to you while you create movement. Need some instrumental music ideas? Visit this Spotify playlist.

The reader should read this slowly, with plenty of beats or time between each sentence: “Create a shape in high level space. Remember it. Create a new space at middle level. Remember it. Hold it for 16 counts to allow your body to remember the shape. Go back to shape number one. Remember it. Hold it for 16 counts and then go into shape number two again. Now create a shape at a low level. Remember it. Hold it for 16 counts. Now go back to shape number 1 and define how you will move into shape number 2. Don’t just get into shape number 2… actually define a creative transition between the two shapes. Do the same for the transition between shape 2 and shape 3. Think about the pathways your body will use as you go between all the shapes. Think about the quality of your movement as you go between all the shapes… are you moving with strength? Are you transitioning slowly or quickly? Think about your transitions like a process, and your shapes like a product. The shapes should look like we can take a great photo and it wouldn’t be blurry. Now, once you have your shapes and transitions memorized, move through the series in 8 slow clounts. Now try it in 4 counts. Now 2 counts. Try the series again but add rotations, turns, or jumps. Can you do the series while moving through space instead of in one place?”

Once you have your series memorized, ask your reader to now play the role of cinematographer. Send us your video to stagelightathome@gmail.com.