December 2025 Newsletter

This month, we’re officially launching our 13th Annual ACT Holiday Tour, and we couldn’t be more excited to share the season with you. Below, you’ll find our first confirmed tour dates—starting with the festive Holiday in the Park event—and information on how to bring ACT’s holiday magic to your own celebration. We’re also thrilled to feature a special group interview with five of the six leads from our recent production of SIX: Teen Edition. Their candid conversation dives into their creative process, the audition experience, and the lessons they’ll carry forward from bringing this powerful show to life.

Upcoming Events

13TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY TOUR

The 13th Annual ACT Holiday Tour Has Begun! We were thrilled to kick off this year’s tour with Holiday in the Park on December 5th & 6th on Pinellas Park.

Our Holiday Tour is taking form, featuring uplifting performances in singing, theater, dance, and visual arts. But we’re not done! We’re actively adding dates and would love to bring ACT’s holiday magic to your event, school, business, or community gathering.

If you’re interested in booking a performance or partnering with us this season, please contact Darnel@artsconservatoryforteens.org.

Celebrate the holidays with the heart, talent, and creativity of ACT!

What people had to say about our SIX: Teen Edition Musical

We were so impressed with how talented these teens are — and especially with what Darnel shared about them achieving this professional, Broadway-level quality in just eight rehearsals!

This was an energizing and inspiring first exposure to the work ACT does.

-ANTONIO PERMUY

PRESIDENT, PERMUY LEGACIES

I have to tell you…In 22 years of teaching high school, I’ve experienced many teenaged performances.

I wasn’t ready. Not only was the talent shocking, but the way they all handled little stage hangups with ease made me so proud and hopeful. I am very impressed.

You have yourself a fan. I will be bringing a group of students to High School Musical.

Thank you for all you do.

-Crystal L. Rockne

Dixie Hollins High School

Hear directly from the Queens of SIX: Teen Edition

Five of the six queens

Last month, some of ACT’s students were chosen to perform a show-stopping, electrifying, and truly unforgettable production of SIX: Teen Edition. Audiences were blown away — from the vocals and choreography to the comedic timing and emotional depth, the performances were nothing short of extraordinary. We received raving reviews from community members, parents, and theater lovers who were stunned by the talent, professionalism, and confidence of our young performers.

What made this achievement even more remarkable?

The cast brought this entire show to life in just eight rehearsals.

Their dedication, discipline, and creative commitment showed in every moment on stage. Not only did they memorize lines, music, and harmonies in record time, but they also mastered high-energy choreography, learned precise technical cues, and fully embodied complex historical characters — all with the grace and professionalism of seasoned performers.

For this month’s newsletter, we sat down with 5 of the 6 leading cast members — to hear firsthand about their creative process, challenges, discoveries, and what this transformative experience meant to them.

Hear from them directly

What was the audition process and rehearsal process like for you?

Justice: The audition process wasn't as hard as some audition processes. You had the song you were going to audition with. You could audition for as many roles as you wanted or just one. You would go into the room, and it would be the director, Darnell Butler, and Anna Moss, and usually our choreographer was there to get a feel for us. We would sing our song, and the next day there were callbacks. Darnell gave us the characters he wanted us to audition for. I auditioned for Anna of Cleves, and I got a callback for Anna of Cleves. For the callback, we did the song and our monologue, which went into the song so he could get a feel for how we were acting. He told me different ways he wanted me to do the monologue again and the feel of it. During the callback, our choreographer McKenzie had us do three or four different songs with choreography to see how we would move through the choreography.

Bella: A little thing that tied into auditions—the big difference between auditions and callbacks for me was that at auditions, I had two roles in mind. At callbacks, I got called back for those two roles and another one. I ended up getting the one I didn't have in mind, which I thought was really cool because our director saw potential in me that I hadn't seen in myself.

Phoebe: For me, the opposite happened. I came in with two roles in mind—Seymour and Anne Boleyn—but I only got called back for Anne Boleyn. That helped me focus on preparing and understanding the character. Some people had multiple characters, which is amazing, but for me, it helped to focus on one monologue and one song.

How did you approach shaping and embodying your character? Walk us through your creative process?

Bella: I was nervous about my character because it was different from any other role I've ever played. So, I took the time and I did a deep dive on my character's whole history because it helps when your character is based off of a historical figure. I went to reliable sources and I researched all about my character and I learned so many different things. One thing that I've learned is to never judge your character. I learned so much about being able to just step into somebody else's mind, think about how they would have reacted to situations. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of encouragement from especially these girls. They've helped me so much to really just get there.

Sophia: So for my character, she's the last solo you hear and she starts off her whole monologue by saying basically “I don't want to do this. I don't want to be a part of the competition anymore.” For me it was very important to go past seeing her for someone who dropped out of the competition because that's how most people view her at first and more for myself to view her as what she wanted to be seen as and known as because in her song she goes through like her history of what she was known for which was being married to Henry and then all she accomplished that wasn't respected and seen from the public. And so viewing her as a deep person with true milestones that she reached that just weren't seen and weren't respected. Um, was really important to me.

Adrienne: My creative process is always to look in the script and read all of my characters lines and also get a feel for how she interacts with everybody because I learn so much about people in real life based off of how they interact with me and with others. So, I try to do that with my characters, whatever character I play I look at who they are and how they go through the world. I also listen to the song and dive into the lyrics and what they mean and and what my character is saying and the nuances behind it because a lot of lyricism is figurative language. So,  looking beyond just the words on the page is really important.

Justice: So for me, I've been a fan of six since middle school. Ever since then, I've always done a deep dive into that type of history. For me, I really wanted to know the actual facts behind the story so that way I could get a feel of how I'm supposed to tell the story because there's a difference between just going on stage and telling the story of how you think it should have happened or how it actually did happen. But when it's an actual history, you can go to landmarks and see the different types of clothes they used to wear or the portraits that they were actually in. For me, it was all about just looking at the history, diving back in there, looking at some of the facts that were written down, some facts that are not proven to be true yet, but have some type of history sewn together with it. For me, that's how it was. But with the process of rehearsals, we didn't really dive too deep into the history. It was more just getting to know everybody, getting to know the book, getting the songs, getting just like everything kind of put together. Then like a week later, we just dived down into dancing. Ever since we just like dove into putting the singing and dancing together. For me, I was like, "Oh, I forgot I had to sing and dance at the same time." So like at some points I was like, "Oh, wait. I can't put my microphone here. I have to dance here." So like just like dancing and vocally together, you have to literally it's like a puzzle. You have to figure out like where does this piece go? Do I have time to do this to put this piece here? But honestly, like it may be chaotic, but it's so fun. Like honestly, just like like being able to like do the shows and being like, "Okay, we did all of this and now we now we get to put it together for like all these people and like at least for me like during like all the shows like when those um house lights would rise up after like um the bows and everything, I was like, "Wow, there are a lot of people here. I did not expect for all these people to be here and like like when the show ended and we were coming out into the crowd and people were like sign my play bill sign this poster I was like you want me to sign your play bill I was like I've never done this before like okay it was just it was an experience to say the least but like I just feel between rehearsals and auditions everything just came together so perfectly especially when you really know your history and you know why you're doing this.

Bella: For me, history, like I said, was a big part of my development because my character says in a lyric, "She's been just one word in a stupid rhyme." I didn't want it to be like that anymore. I wanted people to know her story. It deserves to be heard. She was an actual person. So that was a part of my personal development for my character. As far as rehearsals, it was a very transformative experience. I started off thinking I was a really bad dancer because I had been told that by so many people over and over. So I got in a community with people who believed in me and believed with me and I grew alongside all these girls and our choreographer McKenzie and our director Darnell Butler. They helped me grow to new lengths that I never knew I could. It was so encouraging and it was an overall great rehearsal process.

What's the biggest challenge you experienced throughout this experience and what did you learn from working through it?

Adrienne: For me it was probably learning lines. We didn't have a lot of time during rehearsals to do that. We were expected to do that at home, and that's typically not the way I learn. Whenever I've had lines, I needed to have the blocking with it. Once I did the scene once or twice with blocking, I'd have that scene down. But we didn't have that opportunity. We had to come with our lines memorized. And I think we only had three or four rehearsals where we were working on lines, and that's not a lot of time. So for me, there were several days where I was sporadically losing my mind, very overwhelmed, but I figured it out. I had my lines down, so I did something right. It taught me — I struggle with ADHD, and I struggle with insecurity because of that, because I feel like my brain's not doing what I want it to do. This experience taught me that just because my brain isn't always doing things the way I'd like it to, there's nothing wrong with it, and I can still be successful in a career and as a person even though my brain works differently. This was a very eye-opening and healing experience for me.

Bella: Yeah. My biggest challenge with this whole process and this show was definitely — this is going to sound really deep — the mental barriers I had in my mind. I had to get over those and it took so much. It took not just rehearsal in a building. It took constant practice outside because practice with yourself in front of a mirror helps so much — being able to tell yourself, “Okay, I am this character on stage. I am this character. I can do this. I can be in this role.” That's what I had to do multiple times. And a lot of times I'd think, you sound ridiculous, what are you doing? But I got over it and eventually I was able to do it.

Justice: I was gonna piggyback off what Bella said. I remember opening morning, when me and Elelliana — who plays Katherine of Aragon — were at school, we went into one of the practice rooms in our theater building and we literally did the whole show in front of a mirror. She was like, “Justice, I can't do this move,” and I said, “Okay, tell me everything now because we're not going to mess up opening night. We're going to get everything correct. We need to show them that yeah, we might have had maybe two months of rehearsal, but we're going to get this opening night right.” So we did the whole show in front of the mirrors, went back on songs, redid some lines. And going off what Adrian said — lines for me were absolutely terrible. It was so bad. Everybody can say it. There was this part at the end of the show, I could not get these three lines down. It was just three lines I could never get. So the week before the show, my mom would make me do those three lines every single night. She’d say, “Okay, Justice, let's go,” and I’d have to do it a million times. I'd say, “Mom, I know it, I know it.” She'd go, “Okay, so let's do it.” And I’d say, “Okay, let's run it again.” Because I did not know it. It's hard to practice with your actual castmates and go through lines because we would all sit there like, “Okay, whose line is next? Who's going to speak?” And the director would say, “Justice, it's your line.” I'd say, “Oh, great. Do you want to give me that line? Because I don't know it.” But after that week, I did get those three lines down. The show was done. The only thing I’d say about lines is — and this was not on me — it was the 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. show. The power went out everywhere in the building. The power went out on the whole street. And it just had to be my moment. It was literally my part when I'm on stage alone. I'm looking around like, “Oh, the music's not going. Something’s not right.” And I just looked down and thought, “Okay, I guess this is it.” And I improvised for a good three minutes. I don’t even know what I said. I don't even know. I just remember saying, “Okay guys, let me tell you why my life is amazing and the queens' lives are terrible.” I don't know what was said. Then I heard music and said, “Okay, I'm gonna go sit back down. I'm gonna go sing now.” After the show, everyone came up to me asking, “Did you mean to do that?” I said, “I wish. I wish I meant to improv all that.” They said, “It was so good. I didn't even notice.” I said, “Thank the Lord because I don't even know what I said.” My mom asked, “What did you say?” I said, “I don't know.” My dad said he was recording, but when the power went out it stopped the recording. So till this day we will never know what I said. But the show must go on — and it did.

Phoebe: For me it was kind of like what I was saying earlier — fully letting myself go and trusting my abilities to have fun in the moment. It's easy to get caught up in all the logistics: the lines, the dancing, the singing, and doing all of that at the same time. Just as the show got closer, it became very real to me that I need to be in the moment and really be in character to really enjoy this experience. I've also been a fan of six for a long time, I saw it when I was little and the whole fact that I was in the show was already surreal to me. So, I think just being able to really immerse myself in the experience really helped and everyone else in the cast really helped with that as well.

Sophia: I was going to say for me, I've been in this show before, but as a different character, and it was last year around the same time, and I played Seymour instead of Par. So, I think the biggest or one of the biggest challenges for me was um I would keep like I would remember her lines, but not mine. And so then I'd be trying to play the character that I was playing right now, but like I had already known the show so well with a different track that it was hard. I'm not a dancer, so learning to like to combine the dances with the singing with microphones instead of the microphones on your face. But I think overall everyone was saying, everyone's super supportive and it worked out.


Now that the production has come to a close, what skills, insights, or lessons are you taking with you into your next opportunities in the future?

Justice: It's kind of sad to think about like Six being over. Honestly, it  just happened so fast.  I was literally saying “Saturday is going to be the saddest day because what do you mean that we're only going to be Six for like these last couple of minutes and everything for five more minutes?" During the last Six song, there's a line where we go for five more minutes and we keep on counting down. And honestly, it was really bittersweet because working with these queens from the first vocal rehearsal to our dress rehearsal, seeing everything come together was just so amazing. One thing I will take with me, not one, I will take a lot of things with me from this production., I would take getting to know everybody and spending time with one another because there were a lot of times where we should have been probably working on lines or dances, but we were in the other room just giggling and telling jokes and everything like we couldn't help it. My mom even came in and she took all of our phones and she said, "Learn your lines." That didn't stop us. We kept on telling jokes and we kept on just doing stuff and like we should have been doing a lot of things that should have been going to the show, but like when you're working with these girls right here, it's it's kind of hard to like focus on a show where you're like, "Let's all have fun. Let's all run around and make fun of the show and everything."  

I'll say just sitting in the moment. There are so many times where I wish I just sat in the moment because everything went by so fast that I wish I  just sat there and waited.  I did sit in the moment right before the curtain would open and we started the show. Just sitting there with our microphones up and we're all ready for that first few moments of music to come in. We would all just kind of sit there and look around at each other like you got this, you got this, you can do it, we can do it. Then the music would start and like boom, we're completely different people. As soon as that music started, we were all like okay we're this we're these queens. We channel all this energy inside of us. But yeah, I say sitting in the moment, making new friends, and it was a really good experience.
Six was honestly the best theater experience I've had in a while. Working with all these people was just a different type of experience and everything. Happy to have all these ladies beside me. That was the one thing that kept me going. There's nobody here who's different from me. We're all telling almost the same story, but in somebody's own way. And I think that really helped with the experience of it.

Adrienne: To piggy back off of what Justice said, for me the biggest takeaway that I have from this experience is the friendships I've made, especially I mean, yes, with the ensemble, but I think more specifically with the five other queens, it's genuinely like family. I consider these girls my sisters at this point. I've never had that kind of friendship with anybody before. We're so close. This kind of friendship is so accepting and loving and I fully feel like I could be myself and never had to hide any parts of me and never had to conform myself to make them love me or or like me more. I could just be I could let the weirdest parts of myself out and not have fear that they were going to shun me. That's so rare to find in one person, let alone five people. It really taught me that there are people like me out there. I just have to find them. Because that's something I've always struggled with. Anytime I think about it, I just get emotional because they're just the best people in the entire world. I'm just so grateful to have been able to do this with all of them.

Bella: I also agree with both of them as far as friendships. It was definitely a really sad, bittersweet moment on Saturday when Six closed. I was sobbing because it was just such a great experience. Being in Six has been one of my dreams ever since I knew about the show. Now we were here and then it closed and I was really sad. I've made such great friends with all of these girls and it's been so great. But the biggest takeaway I think I have is never say can't. You can do anything with enough practice and enough encouragement. It's not impossible.

Phoebe: It's really sad for me because I'm the only senior in the cast. I think there's a lot of doors closing in my life and you know final chapter and just kind of I have to say goodbye to and I think this experience really helped me appreciate like the little moments with everyone and yeah I think just the biggest takeaway I mean it helped me I feel like open up as an actor definitely trusting my instincts as I kind of said before and being able to lean on other people who I know are dependable, work hard, and are super talented. I've never been in a cast that has this many talented people. It was a very special experience that I think I will look at for the rest of my life.
 

What's on the horizon for each of you? What opportunities are you excited about in the future? 
 
Justice: For a few years, I've been really just wampy about where I wanted to go for college, I was always stuck between musical theater and pediatric nursing. Actually it was during six that I realized that I want to go into musical theater because I realized there is nothing in the world that makes me happier than being on a stage, especially sharing a stage with people who also love what I love to do.

That was hard for me to figure out because with pediatric nursing, I've always just wanted to help and I love kids. I realized I don't want to just stick with something that I know will get me money and put me somewhere like where I'm financially stable. Like even though yes, I do want to be financially stable in some type of way, I also want to be happy in what I want to do.I realized that being on a stage, whether it's I'm in the very backs of the backs with only two numbers and no speaking lines or if I'm all the way in the front with speaking lines and dancing and everything. I don't really care where I am on stage. I just know I love to be on the stage and I know that's something that I want to do. I'm actually really glad that Six was the one to help me figure that out since that has been one of my favorite musicals since I was little.

Bella: Six has helped me discover so many things about myself, but one of them I didn't know what I was going to do for my minor at ACT. I was really struggling with it. And then I asked my choreographer, Mackenzie. I was like, "Hey, do you think I should minor in dance?" And she's like, "Yeah, you should." And I'm like, "Really?" And she told me again, "Yes, you should. Just be prepared to work." And I was like, "Yeah, I'll work." As far as opportunities for me personally, right now I'm in two other musicals and I'm vocal coaching in another. I'm in Hades Town right now as fate and I'm in Wizard of Oz right now as Dorothy which is the biggest role I've ever played in my life. So I'm really excited. Thank you. And then as far as even broader future things, I really want to headline my own concerts one day and I'm starting my social media pages and stuff like that pretty soon and really working on my music and my craft. So yeah.

Sophia: I also really enjoy working with kids.Yesterday, I went on this volunteering opportunity called Advocacy Academy, which is a leadership program that I joined this summer. I worked in the daycare with elementary school aged kids. I plan on volunteering at that place more often and working with the kids. And then also my school, we do four shows a year and this next semester I really want to be cast in Natasha Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812.  I'm really hoping for that and I'm preparing. I'm doing a master class on Wednesday with Phoebe to prepare for the audition. So, that's what I'm most excited and hopeful for.

Adrienne :I watched Hamilton on Disney Plus and saw Phillipa Soo as Eliza, and that sparked everything for me. I remember thinking, I want to do that. I’ve always loved theater—I watched my first Carmen opera at one year old—but I never really saw myself performing. Part of that I think came from a lack of confidence.

After watching Phillipa Soo, I knew that’s where I belonged. I was around 11 or 12 then, and ever since, Broadway has felt like the ultimate goal. But I’m excited about anything in the industry—TV, film, even being an extra in the background. I’m hungry for it and ready for any opportunity.

Nothing is solidified yet, but doors are starting to open for me. I can’t share much yet, but it’s definitely exciting.

Phoebe:
Right before this, I was working on college pre-screen materials for musical theater, so there’s been a lot on my mind. I’m also in a finance academy at my school, and I’ve always had a passion for that as well.

Before Six, I was really on the fence about whether I wanted to continue musical theater—whether I loved it enough to pursue it. This experience has opened my eyes to how much I truly love it. Even though it’s a competitive field, I know I’ll find joy in being part of shows, whether that’s community theater or maybe even Broadway.

Since college is coming up quickly, I’m considering a double major if possible. People say it’s a lot of work, but after everything I’ve experienced, I feel it’s the right path for me.

I’m also in a musical at my school right now, and it’s very dance-heavy, so I’m hoping it will help me grow more in dance.

Bella: I might cry, but in one of our last numbers we say, “Nothing is for sure, nothing is for certain.” What you said earlier reminded me of that—life changes, but one thing we’ve all learned is that we’ll always be there for each other. We’ll always have each other’s backs.

I’m so grateful I got to meet everyone in this cast and build these friendships. We have great things ahead of us.