Over 100 NYC public school students will make their Broadway debuts online when the 7th annual SHUBERT FOUNDATION HIGH SCHOOL THEATRE FESTIVAL for NYC Public Schools has its world premiere on Wednesday, May 26, 2021 at 7PM. This high profile and high-energy theatre education experience for students is presented by The Shubert Foundation and the NYC Department of Education Arts Office.
From TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 to ROMEO & JULIET, from Stephen Schwartz musicals to devised originals... Join us and Celebrate our NYC student artists and their virtual productions from high schools across all 5 boroughs!
WATCH HERE:
James Monroe Iglehart (ALADDIN, HAMILTON) will host this year’s seventh annual event, which will be presented online for the second year. And don’t miss special guest appearances from Broadway artists including Linda Cho, Brandon Victor Dixon, Treshelle Edmond, Amelia Hensley, Nikki M. James, Zachary Noah Piser, and Stephen Schwartz.
And be sure to check out video from the 2020 High School Theatre Festival.
The Festival is a celebration featuring six outstanding high school student productions, representing every borough, selected from over 30 productions across the city by a panel of professional theatre artists and theatre educators. The Festival’s inspired online production excerpts reflect the professionalism, the focus and the passions of our NYC public school students from diverse backgrounds and identities who came together with at least one common ground—to tell stories and build bridges. Under widely challenging circumstances, each student artist found time and space to rehearse and record their individual performance on smartphones and laptops so audiences everywhere could enjoy their artistry and collaboration.
This year, student presentations from the following schools will present excerpted scenes and musical numbers:
“BEAUTIFUL CITY” (From Godspell)
Curtis High School - Staten Island
JUST ANOTHER DAY 2.0
Renaissance High School for Musical Theater and The Arts - Bronx
TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992
Fordham High School for the Arts - Bronx
FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE
Millennium Brooklyn High School - Brooklyn
ROMEO AND JULIET
Professional Performing Arts High School - Manhattan
DIVERSE CONNECTIONS
Lexington School for the Deaf - Queens
“EVERYBODY REJOICE (BRAND NEW DAY)” (From The Wiz)
Students from Participating Schools
This digital program was created using PLAYBILLder;, Playbill's custom, Broadway-quality program creation tool. Get started building your real—or fantasy—Playbill program today at PLAYBILLder.com.
The High School Theatre Festival showcases the ongoing excellent theatre work currently taking place in NYC public high schools, as well as highlights the positive effects of theatre study on skills for the stage and in life: collaboration, artistry, discipline, focus, literacy, student voice, self-awareness, presence, active listening and empathy. The evening focuses on the impact that a full theatre program can have on students and school communities and enables students to see theatre and the arts as a potential career path.