Middle School Theater wows at Junior Theater Festival 2020

By Melissa Flatt, JTF 2020 Parent Liaison

Under the direction of Bakari King, 37 students attended the Junior Theater Festival 2020 to present a 15-minute adaptation of "Frozen Jr." for adjudication. This year’s 15th anniversary had an anticipated 7,000 participants, 127 groups, represented 28 US states, and 6 countries (the UK, New Zealand, Australia, China, Canada, USA). While there is an element of competition associated with the festival, the purpose of the weekend is to celebrate a shared love of theater, complete with presentations, workshops, and performances.

And you never know who might be on the stage or next to you in the hallway. Tom Schumacher, the President and Producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, hosted a segment aptly called Direct from Broadway, bringing along several of his friends including Michael James Scott (the original Genie from the musical Aladdin), McKenzie Kurtz, Ryan McCartan and Andrew Pirozzi (Anna, Hans, and Sven from Frozen) on Broadway. Sunday’s Pathways presentation allowed us to hear from Mo Willems (author and illustrator of the "Elephant and Piggie" series and the “Don’t Let the Pigeon” series, plus many more), Joshua Bassett and Olivia Rodrigo (High School Musical, the Musical, the series), and Nicholas Christopher and Jennifer Locke (Hamilton). USN’s workshops were incredible, and included a dance session led by Brion Watson, who is currently performing in Hamilton, and who taught us the choreography for "The Room Where it Happens". Our Acting Workshop was led by none other than Rob Rokiki (the composer and lyricist for The Lightning Thief). Sunday evening concluded with a concert by Caissie Levy (Elsa in Frozen on Broadway).

As for that little competition portion of the weekend, our USN team did well, taking home the award for Excellence in Ensemble Work, an award that recognizes the complete performance and the entire group with all of their talents: acting, vocals, choreography, main characters and ensemble, and storytelling, rather than awarding a single component of the set. Our All-Star performers (2 students from each school chosen by the adjudicators) were Millie Sims '27 and Kari Belle King '24. Victoria White '26 successfully completed all rounds of choreography auditions. And Addi King was part of a small group interviewed by Thomas Schumacher on the main stage discussing how it felt to become a character in a musical. Wonderful results for a weekend that is about so much more than winning awards.

Instead, Federle and Schumacher sum up the message of the weekend succinctly:

“If you treat people as unlimited, they have no limits.”
-Tim Federle

“Theater is a place where everything is possible.”
-Thomas Schumacher