The Freddie G. Awards ceremony, the culmination of the first-ever Junior Theater Festival Online Extravaganza, streams live January 17 from 3:30-4:30 PM ET. The free stream will include performances from Frozen and Wicked star Ryan McCartan and Mean Girls' Krystina Alabado. Watch the ceremony above beginning at 3:30 PM ET.
Closing out the weekend-long virtual celebration of all things youth theatre, the ceremony will celebrate the festival with performances of existing and soon-to-be-released Broadway Junior shows by festival attendees. Works set to be represented include Something Rotten! JR. (The British Theatre Academy in London), Disney's Camp Rock: The Musical (The LIghthouse Theater Company in Albertville, AL), Disney's Freaky Friday (The PACT Company in Mobile, AL), Hans Christian Andersen Online Edition (Spark of Creation Studios in South San Francisco, CA), The Big One-Oh! JR (Eastern Shore Repertory Theatre in Fairhope, AL), and Dot and the Kangaroo (Inspiration Stage in Sugar Land, TX). Performance, technical, and teacher awards will also be presented during the broadcast.
Get a sneak peek of The British Theatre Academy's performance from Something Rotten! JR. below:
“The Junior Theater Festival lets young theatre-makers and their programs experience the massive international and cultural impact of their voices, talent, and perseverance," says Timothy Allen McDonald, Founder and CEO of iTheatrics, which presents the festival. "We show them that they are actually part of a huge international network of students and artists who care as much about musical theatre as they do. They recognize their own possibilities by connecting to the stories and talents of the artists onstage… or running events backstage. And we bring in theatre’s best and brightest—who all see a little part of themselves in these kids—to celebrate and elevate these young artists through the life-changing potential of the arts."
Created for organizations performing Music Theatre International's 30- and 60-minute Broadway Junior musicals and Online Editions, Junior Theater Festivals bring students and teachers together with Broadway professionals for a weekend of performances and workshops. Past attendees have included Ahrens and Flaherty, Skylar Astin, Shoshana Bean, Nicholas Christopher, Darren Criss, Zac Efron, Cynthia Erivo, Megan Hilty, Arielle Jacobs, Kenny Leon, Caissie Levy, Kara Lindsay, Lindsay Mendez, Alan Menken, Ben Platt, and Jeanine Tesori.
Though the January festival has moved online due to health restrictions, in-person festivals are currently planned for Sacramento, California, in May and Sugar Land, Texas, in June. Festival sponsors for JTF include Playbill, Music Theatre International, Disney Theatrical Productions, and iHeartRadio Broadway.