Broadway and Hollywood superstar Denzel Washington hosted the Shubert Foundation/MTI Broadway Junior Student Share celebration on Monday, May 19, 2014. Hundreds of students from New York City Public Schools made their Broadway debut performing on stage at the Broadhurst Theatre.
School kids from Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Manhattan presented a song from their school's production of a student version of a Broadway musical, including Annie JR., Once On This Island JR., Hairspray JR., Dear Edwina JR., Fame JR., Seussical JR., Guys and Dolls JR. and Fiddler On The Roof JR.
The Shubert Foundation/MTI Broadway Junior Program is a groundbreaking musical theatre mentorship program that builds self-sustaining theater programs in public schools that have limited arts programming. The program is sponsored by The Shubert Foundation, Music Theatre International (MTI) and The New York City Department of Education. “The results achieved from Broadway Junior have been truly extraordinary. Schools with previously little or no access to the arts come to consider themselves “arts” schools and teachers who didn’t realize they had talent as a theater director, musical director, choreographer or designer become arts leaders in their schools and communities. Quite a few schools have added full-time arts teachers, and Principals at many of the schools comment on the larger learning culture that this Broadway Junior program promotes and helps develop,” according to Peter Avery, Director of Theater, NYC Department of Education.
The Shubert Foundation/MTI Broadway Junior Program aims to engage as many students as possible in all aspects and areas of the arts. In the first year of the program, teachers and students are guided step-by-step through the process of producing a first-ever musical in their schools. In the second year, teachers and students continue to receive support and encouragement on their second musical, but take ownership over their productions. In the third year and beyond, schools present a musical independently, and serve as inspiration for other schools involved in earlier cycles of the program.
The Shubert Foundation/MTI Broadway Junior Program was founded during the 2005-2006 school year. To date, nearly 50 schools have participated in the program. Teachers from participating schools attended three Professional Development workshops that took them step-by-step through the process of putting on a show in their communities. The teachers then returned to their schools, selected their musical, held auditions and cast the show. Students were guided through the entire process by a production advisor provided by ArtsConnection, a partnering organization that supported schools throughout the process.