Stage to Stage

Everything About School (Almost) was Madeleine’s first production with the Crescent City Lights Youth Theatre in July 2009. A fourth grader who attends Metairie Academy, a public school for gifted children in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans, Madeleine is a gifted young singer. Her family has suffered several economic setbacks in the past couple of years, so she was very pleased to be a part of Crescent City Lights Youth Theater in summer of 2009. She got the part of “Debbie” and had a solo song, which she handles with great gusto!

Since 1999, the Crescent City Lights Youth Theater has been providing the child talent for the productions of the New Orleans Opera Association. The children auditioned for the October production of Tosca, in September, and Madeleine landed the solo singing role of the “Shepherd Boy”!

It turned out that Madeleine had seen the CCL kids perform in the opera Carmen in the spring of 2009 (the first production at the renovated Mahalia Jackson Theatre for the Performing Arts since Katrina) and decided that she wanted to do that too. Her mom later said that she carried the program (which had photos of all the kids in the chorus) around with her for weeks after the performance.  

Being a part of the Tosca production made such an impression on Madeleine that she used the subject of opera as her social studies project.

Madeleine has also sung the National Anthem at a number of sporting events, including the last New Orleans Saints game in 2009. 

All of these tremendous learning experiences have occurred due to the influence of the Crescent City Lights Youth Theater, starting with Madeleine seeing the opera Carmen and then being cast in a CCL productions. She is in the cast of our new show, Golly Gee Whiz, and will be cast as the leading lady! Her story is but one of the many stories of success from children who participate in the Crescent City Lights Youth Theater.

A Letter From Madeleine's Fourth Grade Teacher to Stage to Stage: 

As a fourth grader, Madeleine was required to select a topic to research in depth and eventually do a social studies fair project on. Yes, you guessed it ... opera. She originally started with "The History of Opera" but soon realized the topic was too broad, and it needed to be narrowed down. So, because of the personal connection, she decided upon Tosca. She has been working on this since September. She researched the history of Tosca and Puccini. She made notecards, then an outline, then an abstract, then a rough draft with an introduction, body of research, conclusion and bibliography, then the final draft, then an oral presentation and finally, a project board to go along with her report/research.

Throughout this entire process, she was so curious to learn more about opera. It's been magical to watch her develop a love for opera, something I never even knew that much about as a grown adult.  

I want to personally thank you again for affording her the opportunity to participate in Tosca. The student preview performances that she has attended have also helped to spark a love of opera in my child at such a young age. Her music teacher at school has provided tickets to her for Carmen and Romeo & Juliette. They have truly inspired my daughter to love opera.

Madeleine did get As every step of the way and placed third in the category of History. But more important than the grades and the competition, she learned about something important to her. Also, if you look closely enough at the board, you will see that she cut and pasted pictures from the student program.  

Madeleine has been eagerly awaiting for you to announce what you are doing this summer. While finishing up her project the other night, she said, "I wish Ms. Julie would do a kid opera." It just reiterated how much impact this has had on her.