JJ House Directs HOW I BECAME A PIRATE for the JJ Project, Beg. Today

By: BWW News Desk Sep. 28, 2013

Rare is the eleven-year-old whose biggest dream in life is to direct a musical. Get to know JJ House, though, and it is easy to see why such an uncommon dream perfectly suits this unique boy. Suffering with 36 broKen Bones from birth, JJ's life experiences endeared him to the world of theatre. Enter MTVarts, an audience-driven, non-profit theatre in JJ's hometown of Mount Vernon, OH. They created the JJ Project to provide an unforgettable directorial debut for JJ. He chose the musical HOW I BECAME A PIRATE.

"When the JJ Project came to our attention, we immediately saw the opportunity to help. I assigned our TRW Partnership Team and contacted MTVarts producer Janis Stone to ask how we could become involved," said Steve Spiegel, President & CEO of TRW. JJ's production of HOW I BECAME A PIRATE at MTVarts will open today, September 28, 2013 at the Memorial Theatre in Mount Vernon.

Along with financial, promotional and human resource contributions, the TRW Partnership Team has initiated a campaign to send good wishes to JJ on his directorial debut. "I'm reaching out to TRW's considerable roster of Broadway writers, directors and producers, along with regional and interNational Theatre managers to send thousands of good luck messages to JJ on his big night! Let's make sure JJ knows the whole theatre world is behind him," Spiegel said. The good luck message form and delivery instructions are available at: www.TRWMusicals.com/jj-project.php

The TRW Partnership Team, the community outreach arm of Theatrical Rights Worldwide, was created by Spiegel in 2009 to address his concern that some schools in New York City didn't have any drama instruction. "We decided to do what we could in our own neighborhood, by sending teaching artists to those elementary and middle schools seeking theatre enrichment but missing qualified teachers and course study," he said. "I asked the specialists on my team to design a program to plant the seeds for introducing and sustaining a school drama program."

The TRW Partnership Team is now in the third year of its Cornerstone Partnership with the Young Leaders Elementary School in the Bronx. "We're proud of the impact we've made in NYC, and now we're excited to partner with an organization outside our local neighborhood, but inside our wonderful family of theatre champions."

Theatrical Rights Worldwide (TRW) is an industry leading New York City based licensing house handling contemporary Broadway titles including MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT, MEMPHIS, THE COLOR PURPLE, and THE ADDAMS FAMILY. TRW also represents a select collection of Theatre for Young Audiences musicals based on world-class children's books.

The musical HOW I BECAME A PIRATE, with book, music and lyrics by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman (SLEEPY HOLLOW: A MUSICAL TALE, ANNE OF GREEN GABLES), is based upon the book "How I Became a Pirate" written by Melinda Long with illustrations by David Shannon.

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