What is LCT's Discovery Series?

Since 1938, LCT has been producing productions for young audiences using young artists as actors and occasionally as technicians. As our productions became more and more popular with school groups, and our professional acting company expanded, we realized that fewer young people would be able to participate in subscription series productions. Many of our Main Stage shows require students to miss up to 20 days of school in a row! That makes it very difficult to keep up with school work. To ensure that LCT retained its tradition of offering young people a variety of performance and technical opportunities we began the Discovery Series in 1995. Our goals were relatively simple:

·    Provide challenging performance opportunities for young people by presenting plays with central characters that are also young in age.

·    Encourage and mentor students in the many areas of technical theatre.

·    Shorten the run of the show so as to limit the number of missed school days.

·    Provide LCT’s professional staff as support to improve the quality of our youth performances.
 

When are auditions? Who may audition?

Discovery Shows hold open auditions, usually six to eight weeks prior to opening, to cast both student and adult performers (ages 9 to 99). Student actors are used in the majority of roles, serving as the protagonist, and, whenever possible, the antagonist, too. Family and community members are encouraged to participate. A professional director teaches cast members advanced acting techniques and character development, often honing their skills by pairing them with professional adult actors from either the community or our intern program.

When and where are performances?

LCT is a professional children's theatre performing on the Main Stage (a 3/4 thrust space seating 307) in our home facility and /or in The Lexington Opera House (a renovated full fly proscenium auditorium seating about 900). We perform weekdays for schools that are bussed in to our facility and weekends for public audiences. Weekdays performers are on-site from 9:00 AM until 1:30 PM. Many students attend school prior to arrival or after performing, depending on their particular school’s schedule. It is always a good idea to check with teachers, principals and employers about the maximum number of days you can miss. Students should also check to see whether they will be counted as excused absences or not. Show information should include the number of school performance days. Most Discovery Productions have a total of eight week day performances, adult actors must be available all eight if they are cast.

What if I'd rather work backstage?

In addition, LCT pairs students with professional designers and technicians to learn the craft of theatre firsthand. Through design work, they are taught the importance of texture, color and shape, while professional technicians instruct the students in the practical skills of creative arts. Learn more by visiting our Discovery Tech Pages.