COMPETITIONS

Our competitions will be between January and May and there will be five competitions. The Junior Theatre Festival and Disney Experience are both OPTIONAL competitions to attend. Three of these competitions will be regional comps. The fourth competition will be our Big Star hosted In House Competition. We are traveling to Anaheim CA for the 24/25 season as well as Sacramento, CA if you are a part of JTF. Most of these competitions take up most of the weekend. It is expected that performers are available Fri, Sat and Sunday of comp weekends. Occasionally there are comps that kids perform on a Thursday evening. In most cases these will be the oldest kids on the team. We will do our best to get the schedule to you asap, but it is often that we do not get it until 7-14 days before the competition.

ATTENDANCE

Attendance is a crucial part of being a member of our musical theatre competition team. When performers are not in class, they are not progressing in the routine and other students are also not learning the correct routine because formations, vocals and staging are negatively impacted. When one person is not there, the entire team suffers. While we understand that things do come up – someone gets hurt or sick, family emergencies – we expect that CPT is given the highest priority. 

2024-2025 Attendance Policy:

• Communication is key if you need to miss class. If you are going to be absent from any CPT class (including dance and vocal required classes) for any reason, you must email Jessica, the CPT Director. (We are no longer utilizing the absence form.) If you are notifying the studio ‘day-of’ for any absence, tardiness, or early dismissal you are required to text Jessica at 206-531-3829. No communication will count as an unexcused absence.
• You are allowed one unexcused absence per 12-week session. If you exceed this allowance, you will likely have your performance track altered (have solos and/or features reassigned to other students) at the discretion of the instructor and studio staff.
• Any absences that take place 2 weeks prior to any performance/competition will result in a student either not being allowed to participate in the performance/competition and/or their performance track (solos/features) being reassigned at the discretion of the instructor and studio staff. This is regardless of whether the absence is considered excused. When students miss class in the two weeks before a competition or performance, it requires extra time from our teachers to re-teach parts, making sure nothing is out of sync and everyone can give their best performance. It is also unfair to the other students present and fulfilling their commitment to CPT.
• Please stay home if you are experiencing fever, vomiting, diarrhea, have an excessive cough or are contagious. You are encouraged to Zoom in for class assuming you are well enough to do so. If an injury is preventing you from participating in class, you will still be expected to attend class to watch so you don’t fall behind.
• Excused or Unexcused: You are responsible for viewing the rehearsal video(s) from class and/or getting together with a peer to learn what you missed before you return the following week.
• Excessive absences (excused or unexcused) may result in a student being removed from the team, and no refunds will be made to the family.
• This absence policy also applies to required vocal and dance classes. Frequent absences from these technique classes will also result in solos and/or features being pulled from CPT routines.

Excused Absences Include: 

• Illness: these must be communicated via email or text 
• School Requirements: these must be communicated at least a week in advance
• Pre-Planned Family Vacation where the staff is notified well in advance.
• All of these require email or text communication for them to be considered excused. No communication will result in the absence being counted as unexcused.

CPT MEMBER CLASS REQUIREMENTS:

Each team member is required to take 4 hours of training to be on CPT (except Minis!). If you are doing extra work, you are required to take 6 hours of training. All your hours offered above count, if you choose to accept them, towards this requirement, as well any of our other classes on the 2024/2025 class schedule.

Grade Group: All CPT students are required to participate in their grade group team. Each grade group team will focus on two different routines to perform at competitions. This year we have five grade group teams, as follows:

• Minis: PreK-K
• Juniors: 1st grade – 4th grade
• Pre-Teens: 5th grade – 6th grade
• Teens: 7th grade – 9th grade
• Seniors: 10th grade – 12th grade

Grade Group Vocal Class: All CPT students (except Minis!) are required to participate in their grade group vocal class, as assigned. These classes will focus on vocal technique, vocal theory, blending as a group, holding harmony, and vocal health.
Note: If you are studying private voice at Big Star, this requirement is waived.

Dance Class: All CPT students (except Minis!) are required to take a dance class. This year we are placing a heavy focus on jazz classes and highly encourage you to enroll in the jazz dance class you have been assigned to. If you are not able to join the jazz class, you can choose to take a Hip Hop or Tap class to meet the dance class requirement. Please contact Jessica if you have any questions regarding placement.

EXTRA WORK CLASSES

Extra Work is a solo, duo, trio or small group. All extra work is OPTIONAL. If you are chosen to participate in a Solo, Duo, Trio or Small Group please plan to be charged your choreography fee on September 5th. Once your time slot is arranged that will be your time slot for the comp season Sept-May. If you are unable to rehearse during a scheduled time you need to provide 24 hours’ notice. We will not be able to do make-up for students due to missed lessons. The way the schedule is being done for solos, duos and trios does not accommodate make ups. If it is a competition weekend rehearsal will not be held on Friday and Saturdays for solos, duos and trios because teachers and students will be attending competitions. We will not do make ups on these weekends as students will be running and working their solos, duos, trios all weekend.

Recap of Key Information:

Meeting Times:

• Mondays: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (Age Group Session)
• Thursdays: 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM (Full CPT Team Session)

Performance Pieces:

• Two theater pieces from Monday sessions
• One full production piece from Thursday sessions

Additional Class Recommendation:

• Dance classes (not required but beneficial)
• Dance class can be Intro Hip Hop (Monday), Intro to Dance (Wed)

Fees:

• Monthly Tuition: $180
• $105 for Monday sessions
• $75 for Thursday sessions

Competition Fees:

• Choreography Fee: $150 (one-time Sept)
• In-house: $225 (Dec)
• Spotlight OR Celebrity: Approx. $270 (Jan)
• Theater Festival (May): Approx. $225 (Mar)
• Coaches Travel Fee: $300 (for the entire season-August)
• Disney/Anaheim Trip: Minis are not required to attend. If you want to attend, please talk to Miss Delaney, as we can add extra work for those that want to attend this travel competition.
• Competitions/Performances: December 7th, January 25th, March 8th, May 10/11, June 14th