THE 2013 Stage Experience musical at the Grand Opera House, York, will be Footloose, a classic American tale of teen rebellion and repression.

This will be 13th year of the summer-holiday project at the Cumberland Street theatre, where once again the doors will be opened to the city’s young actors, musicians and technicians for two weeks of rehearsals with a professional director/choreographer and musical director.

Stage Experience will run from Saturday, July 20, to Saturday, August 3, culminating in four public performances from August 1 to August 3.

Dean Pitchford and Tom Snow’s Footloose is based on Herbert Ross’s 1984 film, which launched the careers of Kevin Bacon, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jon Lithgow.

The stage musical features such Eighties anthems as Holding Out For A Hero, Let’s Hear It For The Boy and the title song in a story set in small-town Bomont, where peace is shattered when big city boy Ren arrives.

Breaking every taboo, he brings dance back to the heart of a town held back by the memory of a tragedy.

Footloose will be directed and choreographed by Louise Denison in her sixth Stage Experience, working in partnership once more with musical director Adam Laird.

They are inviting singers, dancers and actors, aged ten to 21, to attend open auditions at the Opera House on Sunday, March 24 at 10am, and they also need young and aspiring theatre technicians to work with the professional team on sound, lighting, set, props and costume.

Please note, technical applicants must be aged 16-plus.

“There is no need to prepare anything for the auditions, but please come suitably attired,” says Opera House deputy general manager Clare O’Connor.

Explaining the choice of Footloose for the 2013 project, Clare reveals: “We wanted a show for this year that hadn’t been produced for Stage Experience here previously and would have a large appeal to both the prospective cast members and the public who will come to see the show.

“Footloose as a show has everything we want out of Stage Experience: dancing, acting, singing and most of all a fun, feel-good aspect about it. As it’s a show that we’ve not done for Stage Experience in the past, it represents a new challenge to everyone involved.”

The biggest incentive to perform in a Stage Experience show, says Clare, is that the participants “get to put on a first-class production in just two weeks”.

“They work with a professional director and musical director; learn new skills; improve their confidence; make new friends; and gain a further insight into the world of performing,” she adds.

“For many, it will be a chance to gain more experience in their quest to do this professionally; for others, it will be a completely new experience, which will give them a taster of what it’s like and maybe set them on the road to stardom.”

Anyone wanting an application form should send an email to yorkmarketing@theambassadors.com or clareoconnor@theambassadors.com or phone 01904 678700.