10 Years of Starlight Theatre Academy
Starlight Theatre Academy is celebrating its 10-year anniversary in 2026 marking a decade of creativity, confidence building and joyful chaos for hundreds of young performers across Newark and beyond.
We started Starlight Theatre Academy at the end of January 2016 with just six students and a big idea. Ten years on, the academy has grown into a much-loved part of the local creative community, with over 380 children and young people having come through our doors. For many of them, Starlight has been about more than learning songs or scripts. It has been about finding confidence, friendship and a space where they feel supported and encouraged to be themselves.
From the very beginning, we have believed that theatre should give every child a voice. That belief runs through everything we do and is reflected in our 18 productions to date. Every show has been written or adapted to ensure that every child has a speaking part, because no one should ever feel hidden at the back of the stage.
Our most recent production, Death Set Sail, captured that ethos perfectly. Written by the students themselves, it was a musical murder mystery double feature that combined creativity, teamwork and a lot of laughter. It was a proud moment and a brilliant example of how we encourage young people to take ownership of their ideas and see them through from page to stage.
Like many small arts organisations, we faced significant challenges during lockdown. Classes moved online and we created an original online musical, all while doing everything we could to keep our community connected. Thanks to flexible, pay what you can pricing, we retained 100 percent attendance throughout that period. For many families, those weekly sessions became an important source of consistency and connection during a very uncertain time.
Over the past decade, Starlight Theatre Academy has grown well beyond our own classes. We have delivered creative workshops and musical theatre after school clubs in ten local schools, with our longest running partnership now in its fifth year. Our holiday clubs have become a firm favourite, with twelve delivered so far, offering fun, creativity and structure during school breaks.
Our birthday parties have also become something of a local favourite, popping up everywhere from woodland clearings and back gardens to village halls, each one designed around the child at the centre of it. We have delivered workshops for local Brownie, Guide and Scout groups, helping even more young people discover the joy of performance in a relaxed and playful way.
We are proud to have taken part in Fun Palace Newark on Trent in 2022, 2023 and 2024, supporting the idea that arts and culture should be accessible to everyone. Our regular classes for children aged four to seven and seven to fifteen have been running in Newark since 2016, and in 2023 we expanded to North Hykeham, where the class has already developed its own holiday clubs and strong sense of community.
More recently, we have introduced private LAMDA tuition, with students now working towards Acting and Musical Theatre examinations. This year also marks our first intake of students entering LAMDA exams, opening up new opportunities for those who want to take their training further.
One of our most meaningful full circle moments has been the journey of Katie James. Katie was one of our very first students back in 2016 and is now our Musical Theatre Lead. She is trained in choreography and currently works with the esteemed performing arts school Addict. Her journey reflects something we have always believed in at Starlight, training, nurturing and genuinely looking after our own.
As we celebrate ten years of Starlight Theatre Academy, we are also looking ahead to an exciting year. Plans include a summer show, a Christmas show, an exciting pantomime and a big 10th birthday party open to the public. Our anniversary showcase, Spectacular, took place on the 25th of January, with term reopening shortly after and free taster sessions running on January 31st and February 1st. Our Starlets classes for four to seven year olds return on February 28th and March 1st, offering musical theatre and confidence building sessions for Key Stage 1 children.
As always, our focus remains firmly on what we do best. Creating welcoming spaces where children can grow in confidence, try new things, make friends and discover just how capable they really are.
