For a while, the Tarrytown Music Hall was home to two youth theater groups: Anya Wallach’s Random Farms Kids’ Theater and John Fanelli’s Lighthouse Youth Theater.
Both groups rehearsed at different venues in the county: Wallach at a series of churches and halls, and Fanelli’s at a kung-fu space in Thornwood.
That changes this month, as Fanelli and Wallach each settle into new rehearsal homes, each 6,000 square feet: Wallach on Executive Boulevard in Elmsford, a stone’s throw from Westchester Broadway Theatre; Fanelli in an industrial section of Thornwood.
On recent tours, each theatrical impresario touted the charms of his or her new home, and discussed plans for the future.
Fanelli plans to expand his offerings beyond theater: The sign on the side of the building reads “Youth Arts Center: Act, Sing, Dance, Art-Rock ’n’ Roll� The Lighthouse has become Youth Arts Center.
Plans, awaiting permits, include more bathrooms, rock ’n‘ roll rehearsal and recording studios, and a costume shop. There are rooms for studying visual arts and for keyboard instruction, which Fanelli sees as a building block for actors who need to be able to sight-read music.
Fanelli inherited 20,000 costume pieces from the now-defunct Rhode Island group Theater by the Sea.
The space is already filling up.
“I thought it would be plenty big enough forever, but it just isn’t,� he says with a laugh.
The diminutive Wallach, 29, who is regularly mistaken for her charges, was giddy as she strolled from rehearsal room to dance studio to a costume shop complete with washer and dryer.
There are rooms for individual instruction, rooms for small groups, and a room for homework to be done during downtime.
Wallach’s Random Farms group will still be the resident youth theater at Tarrytown’s charming Music Hall.
Fanelli has struck a deal with Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford to present his musicals on the dinner theater’s stage.
Fanelli, who created WBT’s Young Artists program in 2005, went on to the nonprofit Times Square Group before starting the Lighthouse Youth Theatre, the precursor to today’s Youth Arts Center.
When Fanelli’s successor at WBT, Jeremy Quinn, left the dinner theater, producers Bob Funking and Bill Stutler decided that the best way to support youth theater was to combine their venue’s resources with Fanelli’s program.
Fanelli handles registration and education and WBT sells the tickets and turns over its stage, crew, props and costumes a few times a year. Some of the performances include a served meal, dinner-theater style; some don’t.
Fanelli’s group will also perform at Yorktown Stage, which is minutes from Fanelli’s Yorktown home.

PHOTOS:

Top photo: John Fanelli and the senior cast of “Les Miserables” take a break from rehearsal at the Youth Arts Center’s new home in Thornwood. The group, formerly the Lighthouse Youth Theatre, performs “Les Miz” at Westchester Broadway Theatre this weekend and at Yorktown Stage in February. By Tania Savayan/The Journal News

Bottom photo: Anya Wallach is surrounded by Oompa Loompas from the cast of “Willy Wonka Jr.” at Random Farms Kids’ Theater’s rehearsal studios in Elmsford. Wallach, who started the group years ago in her parents’ basement, now has a long-term lease on the 6,000-sq.-foot rehearsal space on Executive Boulevard. John Fanelli, in his Youth Arts Center, a 6,000-square.-foot rehearsal studio of his own in an industrial section of Thornwood. By Tom Nycz/The Journal News