The 13th Annual Shubert Foundation / MTI Broadway Junior™ Student Finale

The 13th annual Shubert Foundation/Music Theatre International Broadway Junior™ Student Finale took place on Tuesday, May 15, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre (235 West 44^th Street). The event was hosted by Kelvin Moon Loh and Vasthy Mompoint, stars from Broadway’s new hit, SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, The Broadway Musical. The Shubert Foundation / MTI Broadway Junior™ partnership is a groundbreaking musical theatre mentorship program that helps public schools affect school culture change through building sustainable theatre education programs. Hundreds of participating students energetically performed musical numbers from their fully produced school shows at the Finale. For many, their first musical theatre experience performing will be on Broadway.

New York City Public School students from Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Manhattan performed numbers from their full school productions of Broadway musicals. The shows included Hairspray JR.; Once on This Island JR.; Fame the Musical JR.; Disney's High School Musical JR.; Legally Blonde the Musical JR.; Disney's The Lion King JR.; Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka JR.; Shrek The Musical JR.; and Xanadu JR.

The program is sponsored by The Shubert Foundation, Music Theatre International (MTI) and the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE). In attendance at the Broadway Junior™ Student Finale was Philip J. Smith, Chairman of The Shubert Organization, Robert E. Wankel, President of The Shubert Organization, Michael I. Sovern, President of The Shubert Foundation, Anna Commitante, Senior Executive Director, Curriculum, Instruction & Professional Learning for the NYC Department of Education, representatives from the Office of Arts and Special Projects for the NYC Department of Education, prominent NYC arts educators, and leading members of New York’s professional theater community.

Freddie Gershon, Music Theatre International’s Co-Chairman, officially began the proceedings with welcoming remarks from the stage. Shubert Foundation President Michael I. Sovern introduced this year’s Broadway Junior™ hosts, Kelvin Moon Loh and Vasthy Mompoint, stars from Broadway’s new hit, SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, The Broadway Musical.

“The program’s impact is truly seen as participating schools are using theater education positively to affect their school cultures for both students and faculty,” said Anna Commitante, Senior Executive Director, Curriculum, Instruction & Professional Learning for the NYC Department of Education. “We are grateful to The Shubert Foundation for its ongoing partnership to provide hundreds of students with unique opportunities to express themselves creatively, collaborate and work towards a common production and learn skills that transcend the stage. On behalf of Chancellor Carranza and the NYC Department of Education, we applaud the students participating in this year’s Broadway Junior Student Finale.”

Michael I. Sovern, President of The Shubert Foundation, stated, “Every year, the Broadway Junior celebration is a joyful burst of youthful talent and energy that lights up Broadway. The long-running success of this program clearly demonstrates the value of The Shubert Foundation’s ongoing support for arts education programs in our New York City public schools.”

"I am enormously gratified, along with Team MTI to witness how this program has matured and expanded over 13 years. The unanticipated long term impact on the students, schools and local communities has gone beyond what any of us could have envisaged as the participating students are learning life skills, indispensable to their futures. These include the ability to collaborate, follow direction and instruction, practice self-discipline and work ethics, and use their imaginations while honing their verbal communication skills and developing social skills which will serve them well in navigating life. These are the great gifts to give a new generation, critical for success, and generally atypical of traditional curricula," said Freddie Gershon, Co-Chairman of MTI who conceived the Broadway Junior Musicals Program.

“The program has such a broad reach far beyond the noted thrill of school communities producing their first full musicals. Principals, teachers and parents from across the city have shared how the process of putting on a show creates a culture of collaboration, emphasizes student focus and revision and enables students to discover new skills and develop confidence,” according to Peter Avery, the event’s Producer and the Director of Theater, NYC Department of Education.

The Shubert Foundation / MTI Broadway Junior™ program engages students in all aspects and areas of the arts, utilizing master teachers and expert production advisers from the educational theatre organizations, iTheatrics, Broadway Bound Kids and ArtsConnection.

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 2018 Broadway Junior™ Student Finale presented performances from middle school groups participating in the second year of the program:

Academy for Young Writers (Brooklyn);

Frederick Douglass Academy VIII (Brooklyn);

Knowledge and Power Prep Academy (KAPPA V) (Brooklyn);

Antonia Pantoja Preparatory Academy (APPA) (Bronx);

M.S. 53 Brian Piccolo School (Queens);

East Flatbush Community Research School (Brooklyn);

Goldie Maple Academy (Queens);

J.H.S. James P. Sinnott School (Brooklyn);

One World Middle School at Edenwald (Bronx);

South Bronx Academy for Applied Media (Bronx);

M.S. 101 The Edward Byrne School (Bronx);

The Gordon Parks School (Queens);

I.S. 5 The Walter Crowley Intermediate School (Queens);

West End Secondary School (Manhattan).

Year Three and Graduated Schools participating in the Shubert / MTI Musical Ensembles:

P.S./I.S. 208 (Queens);

P.S./M.S. 042 R. Vernam (Queens);

J.H.S. 217 Robert A. Van Wyck (Queens);

J.H.S. 127 The Castle Hill (Bronx);

Ronald Edmonds Learning Center II (Brooklyn);

Redwood Middle School (Queens);

P.S. 184 Newport (Brooklyn); Entrada Academy (Bronx);

In Tech Academy MS/HS 368 (Bronx);

Soundview Academy for Culture and Scholarship (Bronx);

The Math Science Exploratory School (Brooklyn);

Corona Arts Sciences Academy (Queens);

I.S. 119 The Glendale (Queens);

Hunters Point Community Middle School (Queens);

Catherine and Count Basie Middle School (Queens);

Mott Hall IV (Brooklyn); Angelo Patri School (Bronx);

M.S. 442 Carroll Gardens School for Innovation (Brooklyn);

Ron Brown Academy (Brooklyn); P.S./M.S. 004 Crotona Park West (Bronx);

New Heights Middle School (Brooklyn).

The Shubert Foundation

Since 2005, The Shubert Foundation has provided more than $4.7 million to the New York City Department of Education for Arts Education/Theatre programs. This year marks the Foundation's 13th year providing funds for The Shubert Foundation/MTI Broadway Junior program which was founded during the 2005-2006 school year. To date, 90 schools and more than 11,000 students have participated in the program. Currently 80 schools are involved in the program.

The Shubert Foundation, Inc. is the nation’s largest private foundation dedicated to unrestricted funding of not-for-profit theatres, with a secondary focus on dance. In 2017, the Foundation provided more than $26.8 million to 533 not-for-profit performing arts organizations across the United States. The 2017 grants marked the 35th year in a row that the Foundation’s giving has increased. The Shubert Foundation, Inc. was established in 1945 by the legendary team of brothers, Lee and J.J. Shubert, producers of more than 520 plays, musicals and revues, as well as owners and operators of a nationwide network of legitimate theatres. For more information, visit www.shubertfoundation.org

Music Theatre International

Music Theatre International (MTI) is one of the world's leading theatrical licensing agencies, granting theatres from around the world the rights to perform the greatest selection of musicals from Broadway and beyond. Founded in 1952 by composer Frank Loesser, and orchestrator Don Walker, MTI is a driving force in advancing musical theatre as a vibrant and engaging art form. MTI works directly with the composers, lyricists and book writers of these musicals to provide official scripts, musical materials and dynamic theatrical resources to over 70,000 professional, community and school theatres in the US and in over 60 countries worldwide. MTI is particularly dedicated to educational theatre, and has created special collections to meet the needs of various types of performers and audiences. MTI’s Broadway Junior™ shows are 30- and 60-minute musicals for performance by elementary and middle school-aged performers, while MTI’s School Editions are musicals annotated for performance by high school students. MTI maintains its global headquarters in New York City with additional offices in London (MTI Europe) and Melbourne (MTI Australasia). For more information, visit www.mtishows.com.

New York City Department of Education

The New York City Department of Education is the largest system of public schools in the United States, serving about 1.1 million students in more than 1,750 schools. The Department of Education supports universal access to arts education through the ArtsCount initiative, which tracks and reports student participation in arts education and holds schools accountable for meeting New York State Instructional Requirements for the Arts.

For more information, visit http://schools.nyc.gov/offices/teachlearn/arts/index2.html.