Blumenthal's Broadway Junior Celebration Set for 3/30-4/1

Blumenthal Performing Arts' annual Broadway Junior Theater Celebration will bring 48 elementary and middle school groups from eight counties, totaling 1,900 students and teachers, to Knight Theater at Levine Center for the Arts on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (March 30-April 1). This is a record number of participants in the program, which has taken place every spring for the past eight years.

Each day, students will perform one song from their school's show on the professional stage of the Knight Theater, as well as participate in workshops led by theater professionals from New York City.

Blumenthal has provided the means for children in the community to experience the thrill of performing in a show with their after-school drama clubs, music and theater classes and school performing arts programs.

Blumenthal Director of Education Ralph Beck says the event is incredibly moving and speaks for itself year after year.

"It is truly amazing to see the attentiveness of the elementary and middle school students from these schools as they watch and listen to the other groups taking their turn on stage," explained Beck. "After each school's musical presentation, one of the iTheatrics pros joins the students on stage to offer guidance. The kids in the audience are silent as they listen intently to the helpful critique being offered while mentally adapting the instruction to their own performances. I've never experienced a school-related exercise or activity in which students more eagerly internalize and adapt information. This is a great example of how the arts prompt analytical thinking."

Blumenthal also purchases comprehensive theater kits for schools, which are for fully licensed 30- or 60-minute versions of Broadway shows such as Into the Woods, Legally Blonde, Disney's The Lion King, The Little Mermaid and Peter Pan. The kits have everything schools need for their students to put on a production, including scripts, director's guides, musical accompaniment CDs, choreographer's guides and more.

Publix Supermarket Charities and Team Creatif USA are first year sponsors of the program. The Doctor Family Foundation and Kearns Saldinger Family Foundation also both provided generous support again this year. Many other donors pitched in to help raise the $21,000 needed to purchase the musical show kits for schools that otherwise could not afford them, as well as the transportation costs for students to attend the celebration.

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