Limelight has TWO new shows coming soon. Our Easter Holiday School and a brand new Summer Musical!
Limelight theatre is a children’s/ young people’s theatre group based in Taunton, Somerset. Limelight was founded by Charlotte ("Charlie") Hamilton and Jonathan Leach in 2011. We run weekly classes for ages 7 – 17 and our hugely popular ‘Make a Musical in a Week’ holiday schools also for ages 7 – 17 .
At Limelight we are all about having fun, making friends and building confidence, but also about giving children and teenagers amazing opportunities and experience and giving them real knowledge and training in theatre and performance.
Both Charlie and Jon have lots of experience in many aspects of theatre and have written, performed, directed, choreographed, musically directed, produced and designed many shows both together and separately, including for the Edinburgh Fringe festival.
As well as running classes and workshops (which always culminate in performances in local theatres), we also get involved with lots of other exciting performance opportunities, festivals and competitions.
We have been on two trips to London, where the kids had a chance to work with industry professionals, dance on a West End stage and watch a West End musical (in 2011 we saw ‘Wicked’ and in 2015 we watched ‘Matilda’).
In 2011 a group of our girls came third in a regional Girl Guiding competition performing one of the numbers from our ANNIE holiday school
Also in 2011, we won the Taunton children’s carnival with our LION KING costumes.
We received fantastic adjudications in the group acting category of the Somerset Music and Drama festival in 2013 and 2014.
And have performed at local events such as the Trident Youth and Community Centre’s Christmas Fayre and St Michael’s Church’s annual concert.
We have also just launched ‘Asparagus Scripts’ where we aim to provide fantastic material for performance by schools, youth theatre groups, amateur dramatics societies or anyone else looking for a great show at an affordable price.
Weekly classes are for children/young people to attend every week during term time where they get the chance to play theatre games, learn technique in singing, dancing, acting and performing and rehearse a show to be performed at the end of term.
Shows take place at least twice year (at the end of the Christmas and Easter terms) and, as well as these, there are often other great performance opportunities throughout the year (such as singing in concerts or providing entertainment for fetes).
We also take part in competitions – In 2011 a group of our girls came third in a regional Girl Guiding competition performing one of the numbers from our ‘Annie’ holiday school and, in the same year, we won the Taunton children’s carnival with our Lion King costumes. In addition to this, in 2013, our walking entry ‘West Enders’, came first in its category in the main Taunton Carnival. We have also received fantastic adjudications in the group acting category of the Somerset Music and Drama festival for two years running.
Our week-long, ‘make a musical in a week’ holiday schools always prove hugely popular and early booking is advised. We run them three times a year in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays. In the week we work intensively, Monday to Friday to cast, direct, choreograph, costume and rehearse a show which is then performed to family and friends on the Saturday. The experience is hard work but great fun and gives the children a chance to learn new skills, make new friends, show off their talents and gain some fantastic memories to take away with them. Holiday schools are perfect for anyone with lots of enthusiasm, regardless of past experience.
Four teams compete annually to hold the trophy for the fastest soapbox racer. Underdog Jake competes in his first ever race. Just one problem though; he doesn't have a driver, a team or even a car.
When the drama captains Elise, Sam and Jemima of blah take on the school nativity, they quickly fear it might be a disaster. Though with the school's arts funding hanging in the balance, they must put on the best disaster they can.
Our Spring Make-a-Musical-in-a-Week.
Two bickering sisters fall into an alternate dimension and must put aside their differences to find their way home.
Our Winter Make-aMusical-in-a-Week.
Storytellers recount the tale of the farmer's daughter and her beloved winged fald, who together save her father from a foul, fire-breathing dragon.
Our Summer Make-aMusical-in-a-Week.
A plane crashes on a mysterious island, where only children seem to thrive. The survivors make efforts to leave, though mysterious forces are at work to stop them.
Our Easter Make-aMusical-in-a-Week.
A journalist in search of a story is drawn to Little Town, New Mexico after a series of so-called 'Alien Abductions' haunt the populous. A string of bizarre, hilarious and inexplicable events ensue.
Our Easter Make-aMusical-in-a-Week. When a Supervillain falls in love with a Superhero, mayhem ensues.
Our 2015 Winter 'Make a Musical in a Week' show. A madcap story about a school, fantasy role-play game which gets completely out of hand.
A concert combining songs and dances from all our previous shows to mark the end of our weekly classes.
Our 2015 Easter 'Make a Musical in a Week' show. A hilarious musical about a riotous girls school who have to fight to win their school back from 'The Colonel' the fearsome head of the neighboring boys school.
Combining SHREK THE MUSICAL and WICKED this show takes you through the magical worlds of Oz and Far Far Away....
Our Winter school, 2014, tells the tale of a dystopian future where art and culture is outlawed.
Our Summer 2014 "Make a Musical in a Week" - written by us, based on the classic 1990s video game.
‘A Complete History of the World (Abridged)’is a musical to be performed by our younger class at the end of this term.
‘Into the Woods Jr’ is a shortened version of the Steven Sondheim musical performed by our elder class at the end of the summer 2014 term.
Our Easter 2014 "Make a Musical in a Week", written by us, and inspired by the TV series TRIBE.
‘The Tribe’ is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a virus has killed all the adults and only the children of the world are left. To survive in this new world the kids form tribes. The show follows the coming together of ‘The Mall Rats’ tribe and their attempt to over throw the dictating tribe of the ‘Locos’.
A benefit concert, featuring many musical theatre classics, to support the re-opening of the Brewhouse Theatre.
Our Christmas 2013 "Make a Musical in a Week" based on the Charles Dickens story.
Our original pantomime featuring the children from all our classes as the end product of our Christmas term.
Our Summer 2013 "Make a Musical in a Week", based around the film BUGSY MALONE.
A show featuring the students from all of our weekly classes for the Spring and Summer terms.
A concert of songs, dances and short scenes to mark the end of our first term of weekly classes.
Another "Musical in a Week". A version of Richard Adams' famous novel.
Our Christmas 20011 "Musical in a Week". Adaptation of the famous Hans Christian Andersen fairy story - with additional goblins!
The second "Make a Musical in a Week" extravaganza. Our own adaptation of the famous Disney musical. Our costumes were so successful they won the Taunton Children's Carnival and we were commissioned to make copies for another theatre group in Bristol.