Riverside Youth Theatre announces auditions for their 4th annual Summer Youth Theatre Festival.  The festival will have a distinct “cat” theme this summer as two musicals will be presented:  Disney’s Aristocats and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats.

Auditions for both productions will be held on Thursday, April 24 from 3:00-6:00 PM at Fellowship Baptist Church, Back Building, 3624 Arlington Avenue in Riverside.

Disney’s Aristocats is a musical geared for elementary aged children currently in Grades 1-6.  The musical is based on the popular 1970 Disney film by the same title.  Madame’s jealous butler, Edgar, cat-naps Duchess and her Aristokittens and abandons them in the Parisian countryside.  What’s a cat to do?  Luckily, Thomas O’Malley and his rag-tag bunch of Alley Cats come to their rescue!  This feline adventure includes the Disney favorites “The Aristocats,” “Scales and Arpeggios” and “Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat.”

Our second musical is the classic 1980’s musical, Cats, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Auditions for Cats will be open to youth from ages 10-18.  Excellent singing and dance skills are required.  Cats is based on the T. S. Eliot book, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.  It is a special night when the tribe of Jellicle Cats unite to celebrate who they are in a larger-than-life junkyard.  The proud cats are suspicious of the audience, but eventually allow them into their domain.  Song favorites from Cats include “Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats,” “The Jellical Ball” and “Memory.”

For more auditioning details, view the Musicals page of our website at www.RiversideYouthTheatre.org.