Performance Opportunities
All YACPA students are cast members with The Young Americans and participate in performances. The Young Americans deliver over 450 performances across five continents each year from high school gymnasiums in the U.S., to Broadway-caliber theaters in England, Spanish bullrings, and gorgeous concert halls in Japan. The crossover between being a cast member and a student is seamless. The Young Americans performances provide a rich enhancement to the learning experience. All of our students become well versed in performing to audiences of every size, age group, and socioeconomic standing. Each student gets the opportunity to showcase their individual performance skills through shows designed to highlight each student’s skills.
FIRST-YEAR FALL SEMESTER PERFORMANCES
The Magic of Christmas
The Magic of Christmas (A Season of Light) is a 2-hour holiday-themed extravaganza. Featuring all 80+ cast members of The Young Americans as well as guest performers. Entertaining over 12,000 Southern California concert-goers with disco penguins, hip-hop Santa’s, celebration of Diwali, Lunar New Year, Baile Folklorico, beautiful choral music, and much more!
FIRST-YEAR SPRING SEMESTER PERFORMANCES
New Kids Show
The New Kids Show occurs toward the end of the spring semester. The cast is comprised of all first-year Young Americans who spend the weekends in rehearsal learning the repertoire, rehearsal processes, and performance techniques of The Young Americans. The New Kids Show is a showcase of the talents of first-year members to their families as well as The Young Americans’ active cast members and alumni.
So. Cal. Outreach
During the spring semester, the first-year students team up with The Young Americans Resident Company and begin working with k-12 students in community programs and schools with the So. Cal. Outreach program. Visiting each community location or school weekly, the Young Americans teach songs and dances to the participants as a way to help them develop self-esteem and self-confidence. In some locations, the program culminates with a public performance featuring The Young Americans as well as the community participants.
SECOND-YEAR + PERFORMANCES
Once first-year students successfully complete the course requirements of the Music Outreach Training Certificate Program they are eligible to audition for cast placement into the Music Outreach Tours, The Young Americans Summer Dinner Theatre at The Highlands Resort in Michigan, Dinner Theatre in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and other contracted performance opportunities.
Music Outreach Tours
A cornerstone of The Young Americans programming is the Music Outreach Tours. Each tour has a cast of 20-30 Young Americans who travel to a region of the world for 3 to 5 months visiting many communities along the way. At each tour stop, The Young Americans host a performing arts workshop for k-12 children. The Young Americans serve as workshop leaders and help teach the performance material to the participants. Each workshop concludes with a public performance wherein The Young Americans perform the first act and join with the local participants for the second act.
Dinner Theatre's at The Highlands Resort in Michigan, and Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Each summer a cast of Young Americans takes up residence at the Boyne Highlands Resort. The cast learns a two-hour show, written to highlight to the talents of each cast member. Performing six nights a week for the summer months the Dinner Theatre is an opportunity for cast members to hone their artistry.
