Segerstrom Center's Disney Musicals In Schools Student Showcase Announced

Today, Segerstrom Center for the Arts is pleased to announce its 2020 FREE Disney Musicals in Schools student share performance, hosted by Kayla Cyphers, who stars as Nala in The North American Tour of Disney's The Lion King. On Wednesday, March 11 at 5:00pm, 200 elementary school students from Arthur F. Corey Elementary (Buena Park), Garfield Elementary (Santa Ana), Frank Vessels Elementary (Cypress), and Sycamore Elementary (Orange) will sing and dance their way through scenes from Disney's The Jungle Book KIDS and Aladdin KIDS in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Disney Musicals in Schools is designed to help Orange County public elementary schools create sustainable musical theater programs.

Now in the sixth year of its partnership with Disney Theatricals Productions, the Center has brought the DMIS 17-week residency to 24 Title 1 schools in Orange County. Disney Theatricals provides each school with performance rights to the Disney KIDS production and free support materials. Segerstrom Center teaching artists work with school teams comprised of 3-5 teachers, training the team and the students for their performances. The Center continues to support each school even after the first year in order to assure that the Disney Musicals in Schools programs continue to thrive and inspire new students for years to come.

Former Santiago Elementary Principal Norris Sanchez acknowledged, "By starting kids in arts programs at a young age, by providing them with a strong musical theater program and staff supported by Segerstrom Center and Disney Theatricals, we can demonstrate what can be accomplished in a public school setting and how our students can be motivated to continue on in school and be successful in their lives."

Talena Mara, Segerstrom Center for the Arts Vice President of Education has been involved with the program's success at the Center since its inception and shares, "Now in its sixth year as one of the Center's most dynamic education programs, Disney Musicals in Schools is still positively impacting students and their families, teachers and school administrators, whole schools and districts in extraordinary ways. In addition to helping to build sustainable musical theater programs in Title 1 schools where access to the arts is often fundamental or unavailable, this powerful program successfully rallies a school's community around a vital understanding that the arts are remarkably good for kids. The arts help young people to stay engaged in their studies in ways that benefit them throughout their school career and beyond when they enter higher education programs or the workforce."

Segerstrom Center is thrilled that all previous schools in Orange County are continuing to offer these Disney Musicals in Schools musical theater education programs throughout the school year. They include: Las Positas Elementary (La Habra), Riverdale Elementary (Garden Grove), Mattie Lou Maxwell Elementary (Anaheim), Santiago Elementary (Santa Ana), Agnes Ware Stanley Elementary (Garden Grove), Ethan B. Allen Elementary (Fountain Valley), Westmont Elementary (Westminster), Adelaide Price Elementary (Anaheim), Eisenhower Elementary (Garden Grove), Rea Elementary (Costa Mesa) and Hill Elementary (Garden Grove), James Madison Elementary (Santa Ana), Sequuoia Academy Elementary (Westminster), Faylane Elementary (Garden Grove), and Esther L. Walter Elementary (Anaheim).

Disney Musicals in Schools is celebrating its 11th anniversary this year. The program is offered in 26 cities across the country and abroad. DMIS is an initiative developed by Disney Theatrical Productions to create ongoing theater programs in local elementary schools. The programs are completely free to participating schools. Disney Musicals in Schools helps to keep the arts in schools and utilizes the unique world of musical theater to build positive relationships between students, faculty, staff, parents and the community. Students work in teams to develop or restore self-confidence, strengthen communication and collaboration skills all while learning and enjoying the process of creating a Disney musical theater production.

Disney Musicals in Schools was launched in response to Disney Theatrical Production's concern that under-resourced students in public schools were not afforded equitable access to the arts. After successfully offering the program in New York City schools, Disney Theatrical Production began partnering with organizations in other communities around the United States.

Disney KIDS musicals, created in partnership with Music Theatre International (MTI), are about 30 minutes in length and have been adapted from the classic Disney films, 101 Dalmatians, Aladdin, The Aristocats, Frozen, The Jungle Book, The Lion King and Winnie the Pooh.

Disney Theatrical Productions (DTP) operates under the direction of Thomas Schumacher and is among the world's most successful commercial theatre enterprises, bringing live entertainment events to a global annual audience of more than 19 million people in more than 50 countries. Under the Disney Theatrical Productions banner, the group produces and licenses Broadway productions around the world, including Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida, TARZAN, Mary Poppins, a co-production with Cameron Mackintosh, The Little Mermaid, Peter and the Starcatcher, Newsies and Aladdin. Frozen, based on the Academy Award-winning film, will open on Broadway in 2018. Other successful stage musical ventures have included the Olivier-nominated London hit Shakespeare in Love, stage productions of Disney's High School Musical, Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame in Berlin, and King David in concert. DTP has collaborated with the country's leading regional theatres to develop new stage titles including The Jungle Book, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Freaky Friday.

Disney Theatrical Productions also delivers live shows globally through its license to Feld Entertainment, producer of Disney on Ice and Disney Live! For over 30 years, Disney on Ice and Disney Live! have brought beloved Disney stories and characters annually to over 12 million guests in nearly 50 countries worldwide, through productions such as Marvel Universe Live! and Frozen, the most well attended and highest grossing Disney on Ice production to date. In addition, DTP licenses musical titles for local, school and community theatre productions through Music Theatre International, including The Lion King Experience, a unique holistic arts education program wherein accredited elementary and middle schools produce condensed, age-appropriate JR. and KIDS adaptations of The Lion King.

For more information on Disney Musicals in Schools, visit: www.disneymusicalsinschools.com.

MUSIC THEATER INTERNATIONAL (MTI) is one of the world's leading theatrical licensing agencies, granting schools as well as amateur and professional theaters from around the world the rights to perform the largest selections of great musicals from Broadway and beyond. MTI works directly with the composers, lyricists and book writers of these shows to provide official scripts, musical materials and dynamic theatrical resources to more than 60,000 theatrical organizations in the U.S. and in over 60 countries worldwide.

MTI is particularly dedicated to the idea of theater as education and has created special collections for younger performers. The MTI Broadway Junior Collection includes "JR." titles, 60-minute musicals for performance by middle school children; and "KIDS" titles, 30-minute musicals for performance by elementary school children. MTI School Editions are musicals that have been annotated for performance by high school students, and the Theater for Young Audiences (TYA) Collection are
70-minute musicals designed for adults to perform for children.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts is an acclaimed arts institution as well as a beautiful multi-disciplinary cultural campus. It is committed to supporting artistic excellence, offering unsurpassed experiences and to engaging the entire community in new and exciting ways through the unique power of live performance and a diverse array of inspiring arts-based education and community engagement programs.

Previously called the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Center is Orange County's largest non-profit arts organization. In addition to its six performance venues, Segerstrom Center is also home to the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School.

The Center presents a broad range of programming for audiences of all ages, including international ballet and dance, national tours of top Broadway shows, jazz and cabaret, contemporary artists, classical music performed by renowned chamber orchestras and ensembles, family-friendly programming, free performances open to the public from outdoor movie screenings to dancing on the plaza and many other special events.