Education NewsRegistration Open for 2023 Junior Theater Festivals
The weekend-long events in Atlanta and Sacramento celebrate everything youth theatre.
By
Logan Culwell-Block
April 01, 2022
Registration is now open for iTheatrics' Junior Theater Festivals, planned for January 13-15, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia, and February 17-19 in Sacramento, California.
JTF celebrates musical theatre and musical theatre education with a weekend of events and performances that bring Broadway and West End professionals together with educators and young students. Youth theatre companies can bring 15-minute staged selections from titles in musical licensor Music Theatre International's Broadway Junior collection for adjudication, after which students attend interactive workshops. Students interested in technical theatre can participate in the tech track, which includes the opportunity to work alongside industry professionals backstage for the festival's mainstage events.
Educators, whether bringing a group of students or attending individually, have access to professional development workshops. Educators traveling with groups have the chance of being selected for the Freddie G Fellowship. Named for MTI Co-Chairman Freddie Gershon, the fellowship is bestowed annually on eight exceptional educators and includes an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City for professional development with Broadway greats and a $5,000 grant for the educator's theatre program.
The events are often also host to special celebrity guests for panels, performances, and other festival programming. Past attendees have included Stephen Ahrens and Lynn 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.
JTF West in Sacramento began in 2017, the first expansion of iTheatrics' Junior Theater Festival Atlanta, which has since spawned similar celebrations in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia.
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