Teen Actors Lean on Mentors, Peers with Lights Up! Theatre Company

It’s dinnertime on a school night, but for the young actors in the cast of Footloose: The Musical, a quick snack break will have to hold them over. Only a handful of rehearsals remain until the show opens at the Lobero Theatre on May 24, and the company is working through Act One in their rehearsal space under the guidance of Artistic Director Amy Love.

The performers, who range in age from 12 to 19, may need to reheat a plate when they get home, but there’s a different kind of family bonding underway as the final production comes together. As one cast works through a scene, their counterparts in the alternate cast watch supportively, taking notes in their scripts. Small groups cluster in quiet corners to help each other recall bits of choreography. The room erupts in appreciative laughter as one actor fully commits to a particularly funny bit of physical comedy called for in the scene.

Love cofounded Lights Up! in 2018 with a vision of giving Santa Barbara teens professional acting training in a supportive, nurturing environment. Along with her cofounders, Jen Gamble and Jenna Berg, Love envisioned a company where professional training and top-notch productions could exist in a safe, familial atmosphere, where adolescents could take creative risks, build relationships, and feel a sense of belonging.

To foster that belonging, Love and her cofounders established the program as a theater company whose members, once admitted by audition, are considered part of the Lights Up! family throughout their teenage years, even if they’re not able to perform in every production (the company typically stages three per season). When school, athletics, or other commitments prevent a company member from signing onto one of the shows, they’re invited to participate in other ways, like helping build sets or sew costumes, or selling concessions during performances.

“Once you’re in, you’re in,” Love says of the company model. “We wanted to create something for teen actors that lasted beyond the scope of any one production, and that gave them the sense that they were part of a community where they could be themselves.”

Now, in the company’s sixth season, Love says those early aspirations are bearing real fruit — especially as older teens take on mentorship roles with newer company members. “We have advanced actors who have developed their skills over several years, and who are now leading our younger performers by example,” she says. “And not just with their acting and singing skills, but also with things like rehearsal etiquette, work ethic, and modeling the values of our company.”

Making Mentorship Official

The idea that more experienced company members could mentor newer ones has always been part of the Lights Up! approach, but when it came time to cast Footloose earlier this year, Love realized there was an opportunity to build mentorship more explicitly into the production experience.

“We have a really committed, talented group of younger teens — 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds —  who are ready to tackle bigger roles. And then we’ve got our advanced actors, several of whom plan to pursue theater in college and beyond. So for Footloose, we decided to build out two casts — one from the advanced actors and another from the ‘rising’ talents — and really lean into that pairing of an older and a younger performer for each role.”

In the early weeks of the rehearsal process, Love and her creative team — Assistant Director Heather Harkness, Music Director Jezreel Real, and Choreographer Meredith Ventura — met with the two casts separately, working through a scene first with the advanced actors, and then with the younger cast. This allowed the actors to work at a pace commensurate with their experience, and for the creative team to spot areas of opportunity unique to each performer. Now, with performances around the corner, both casts are called to most rehearsals, providing lots of opportunities to learn from each other.

“The advanced company members really set the tone,” Love says. “When they are focused in rehearsal, when they encourage another actor, when they try something brave and vulnerable themselves, the younger actors are watching and learning. It’s been gratifying to see this culture of kindness that we envisioned from the start be passed down within the group.”

Sharing The Lead

One of the company’s advanced actors is 18-year-old Noah Dehli, a senior at Laguna Blanca School who plays the show’s lead, Ren McCormack. Dehli plans to attend Stanford University as a Theater and Performance Studies major in the fall, but his more immediate sights are set on this production of Footloose — and on the significance of being one of the older performers in the group.

“I remember when I first started acting, how deeply I admired the older kids. They seemed huge to me at that time, and now I realize I’m in that same position for others,” Dehli says. He appreciates the way Lights Up! structured the older-younger double cast for Footloose, because it “set that intention from the start, and it’s allowed the advanced company members to have one experience that fits with where we are, but at the same time open up a collaborative process where we’re paired up with younger actors.”

That collaboration with his counterpart, 14-year-old Rylan Nelson, has given him new ways to see his own performance, Dehli says. “I get to pass on the practical knowledge I have, to see what questions come up for him and how he might even approach something differently than I would. We have a different amount of life experience, of course, but there’s a lot going on that’s completely untethered to our age gap. I’m also learning from him.”

Love has seen the mentorship benefits go in both directions. “The knowledge that they’re stepping into leadership positions, and seeing the talent and enthusiasm of the younger cast, has challenged our advanced company members to bring their very best to the process. They’re stepping up their game, and I think they’re inspired by the group coming up behind them.”

Brynn Wood, 14, is one of those rising talents stepping into a bigger role in Footloose (she plays Vi Moore). “It’s the biggest role I’ve ever gotten to play,” she says, “which is amazing … and a little scary!”

But Wood says she feels supported by her counterpart in the older cast, and by all the advanced company members, which helps calm her nerves as the performance nears. “These are actors I’ve looked up to for years, and they’re so great to work with. We’re kind of like a big family. That’s the beauty of Lights Up!”

Lights Up! Theatre Company presents Footloose: The Musical May 24-26 at the Lobero Theatre (33 E. Canon Perdido St.), with the younger cast performing May 24 at 7 p.m. and May 25 at 1 p.m., and the older cast performing May 25 at 7 p.m. and May 26 at 1 p.m. See lightsupsb.com and lobero.org.