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Footloose

2024 High School Musical Production

2023 Season Sponsor

Let’s hear it for the 2024 Drayton Entertainment Youth Academy High School Musical Production! Announcing Footloose featuring local high school students on stage and off as our next highly-anticipated high school musical!

The High School Musical Production Program allows high school students to learn valuable life skills gained by participating in a fully-staged Drayton Entertainment Youth Academy Production.

February 14 to 25, 2024
St. Jacobs Country Playhouse

Drayton Entertainment has been steadily growing its training offerings for young performers over the past several years, including launching its new, state-of-the-art training hub, The Drayton Entertainment Youth Academy. Its mission is to provide performing and technical arts training opportunities anchored in the Drayton Entertainment brand of live theatre excellence, facilitated by professional industry mentors. Our aim is to cultivate community, incite leadership, ignite imagination, and boost confidence in a socially aware, inclusive environment.

The High School Musical Production Program offers 100% barrier-free access, including financial, emotional and physical, to unite students from different backgrounds, identities, cultures, abilities and interests, completely free of charge. Drayton Entertainment is committed to diverse, inclusive casting without regard to disability, ethnocultural identity, or gender. It allows students to be mentored by professionals in ALL departments, both on stage and off. We’re seeking passionate theatre-makers, whether their passion lies in performing or technical arts, to gain the hands-on, transferable life skills required to present a fully-staged Drayton Entertainment Youth Academy Production.


david connolly

Director and Choreographer

David Connolly

David is the Associate Artistic Director of Drayton Entertainment, Director of Education for their Youth Academy and Co-Chair of their EDI Committee. He is also an active Disability and Inclusion Advocate who is deeply committed to changing the statistic of being the only male amputee to have performed on Broadway. 

As an Educator, David has been an Adjunct Professor and Advisor to the Musical Theatre Performance Programs at Sheridan College, Randolph College, St Lawrence College, VanderCook College and most recently, the Hopkins Centre for the Arts at Dartmouth College. While on the faculty at the famed Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Centre in New York, his students included Natalie Portman and Bryce Dallas Howard. He has also collaborated with artists including Katy Perry, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker, kd lang, Patti LaBelle, Sarah Brightman and many others.

For Drayton Entertainment, he has helmed over thirty-five productions including The Prom, Kinky Boots, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Mamma Mia! Newsies, Singing In The Rain and their beloved Pantos. David is a recipient of The Ontario Premier’s Award of Excellence and speaker for the DEI Committee of the International Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance. For the past four years, David has curated and moderated a disability inclusion panel at BroadwayCon in New York City to help develop actionable steps to improve disabled representation onstage, and has proudly served as a peer assessor for The Canada Council for the Arts.


“As we look to the future, we are committed to providing positive experiences for the next generation of artists onstage and behind-the scenes, which transcend the arts to shape future leaders and community-minded citizens. This production will provide an opportunity for us to support a broad generational shift in society by creating a socially aware and inclusive environment where these talented young people can flourish.”

-Alex Mustakas, Artistic Director, Drayton Entertainment

About the Show

Objectives


Performer Auditions

Audition Details

How to Prepare for Your Audition

Character Descriptions

Tentative Performer Schedule

Backstage Interviews

Backstage Interview Details

Tentative Backstage Schedule

Registration

Step One: Fill out the Participant Info Submission Form

Image Release Waiver

As the legal parent or guardian, I agree to allow and give permission to DEYA to use any photos or video footage of my child/children (ie. auditions, rehearsals, or performances) for the promotional use and purposes, should DEYA choose to do so in regards to the advertising of DEYA.



    Step Two: Select a Time-Slot

    Sign-Up to Audition for a Performing Role!

    Sign-Up to Interview for a Backstage Role!

    Step Three: Have fun preparing!


    The 2023 High School Project

    A look back at Legally Blonde…

    2023 saw the inaugural Drayton Entertainment Youth Academy High School Musical Production with Legally Blonde! With 35 cast members and 15 crew members from 15 different high schools, Legally Blonde has an almost sold-out run at the St. Jacobs Country Playhouse in February of 2023.

    Read more about the show on CTV’s website: ‘Legally Blonde: The Musical’ to showcase young talent from Southwestern Ontario

    “It’s just so professional. You get so much input on your acting and your singing. You get a lot of feedback […] Everyone here has gotten so close and we’ve helped each other grow and build.”

    – Alyssa Panda, Legally Blonde Cast Member

    Read Bill Jackson’s full article in the Waterloo Chronicle: ‘A new community of like-minded people’: Drayton Entertainment Youth Academy to stage inaugural high school musical


    2023 Season Sponsor

    For more information, please contact us at 
    youthacademy@draytonentertainment.com, 519-804-1100