Broadway Junior

Broadway Junior adapts classic and
contemporary musicals into 70-minute
editions perfect for middle-school aged performers.

A Division of Music Theatre International

Hello Festival attendees,

The following website has been updated to reflect the exciting changes that have happened over the past few weeks. Below you will find brief introductions to our workshop leaders, adjudicators, and special guests, and descriptions of our student and teacher workshops. You will also find a more detailed schedule for the weekend.

The Festival committee is preparing specialized information for every attending group that will outline your specific adjudication times, as well as your "track" throughout the weekend. These materials and all the other general information you will need, will be mailed to you just after the holidays.

Things are gearing up to ensure an exciting, fun and informative weekend. We hope you are as excited as we are and we can't wait to see you in January!

Best,
The Festival Committee

Download the Festival press release here

ADJUDICATORS, WORKSHOP LEADERS, AND SPECIAL GUESTS

CHRISTY CARLSON ROMANO (Festival Emcee) recently completed a 7 month Broadway Run as Belle in Disney's Beauty & the Beast. Best known as the voice of "Kim Possible" on the Disney Channel/ABC Family animated series, Emmy Nominated, (Woman's Image Award 2003, Best Animated Series), and as Ren Stevens on Emmy Nominated all seasons, BAFTRA AWARD winning "Best Family Show, Even Stevens. Disney Channel ABC Saturday Morning. Broadway: Mary Phagen, Parade (Lincoln Center),1st National Tour The Will Rogers Follies, The Sound of Music. Other Theater: Stars in your Eyes , The Night of the Hunter, Tatiana in Color, Just One World, Spiders's Web, Ruthless, Annie, Film: Looking for an Echo, Henry Fool, Everyone Says I. Love You. Books on Tape: Cuckoo's Child, Bat Six, Connie B. Jones, My Heartbeat, Pop Princess. Other TV Appearances Joan of Arcadia, Summerland, Cadet Kelly, The Stevens Get Even, The Many Trials of Tammy B., The Disney Hour, Tech T.V., ABC Christmas Parade. Currently writing her own music for her first album release. Thank You God, family, fans and friends who have gotten me this far! Web Site: ChristyCarlsonRomano.com.

MICHAEL ORLAND (Musical Director / Pianist) is currently the Pianist, Arranger and Associate Musical Director for the hit FOX-TV series AMERICAN IDOL. Through this amazing opportunity, Michael has appeared on Oprah, Entertainment Tonight, and The Wayne Brady Show, and has collaborated with music industry giants such as Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka, and Diane Warren, to mention just a few. He also served in the same capacity for the successful summer series American Juniors and has Associate Produced two hit singles ("God Bless the U.S.A." and "What The World Needs Now Is Love" for AMERICAN IDOL as well as the hit compilation CD from American Juniors.

Michael began his impressive musical career in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts at the tender age of three, when he escorted each member of his family, one by one, to see Mary Poppins, and then sat down at the piano and played the songs by ear. Since this auspicious beginning, he has become one of the most acclaimed musical directors on the concert and nightclub scene.

In addition to playing and conducting for many celebrities including Lucie Arnaz, Kaye Ballard, Deborah Gibson, Shecky Greene, Jennifer Holliday, Lainie Kazan, Sally Kellerman, Gladys Knight, Barry Manilow, Chita Rivera, and the late Nell Carter and Wayland Flowers & Madame, Michael played for the hit shows Forbidden Broadway, Ruthless!, and When Pigs Fly in Los Angeles. He made his Hollywood Bowl debut accompanying the legendary MGM star Ann Miller.

Prior to AMERICAN IDOL, television appearances have included The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Leeza, The Maury Povich Show, and Geraldo. He also appeared on the hit sitcom The Nanny performing an original song. Look for an upcoming appearance on the UPN sitcom Half & Half where Michael not only performs an original song, but also nails a line of dialogue with the perfect comic timing he has acquired from sitting through years of nightclub acts.

An accomplished songwriter, his songs have been featured on several daytime soaps and primetime shows. On recordings he can be heard on Debbie Gravitte's Alan Menken Album and MGM Album; Rita McKenzie's Ethel Merman's Broadway, Ruthless! The Musical, and produced and arranged Roslyn Kind's Come What May. Michael is currently working on a solo piano album due out soon. Please visit Michael's web site, www.michaelorland.com, periodically for news updates and upcoming events.

DEREK M. BOWLEY, Associate Director of Education at North Shore Music Theatre (Beverly, MA), served as an adjudicator at the 2003 Junior Theater Festival and is thrilled to be back. He has taught classes and workshops for organizations throughout New England including American College Theatre Festival, Northern Stage, Vermont Young Playwrights Festival, Endicott College, and the MA High School Drama Guild. As a musical director and a performer, he has worked on productions with various theatres ranging from the professional to the school level. At NSMT, he teaches various programs for school-aged children and serves as resident musical director for the award-winning Youth Performance Academy. Derek holds a BM in Music Therapy from Nazareth College and an MA in Theatre Education from Emerson College.

STEPHEN GABRIEL - With eight years of conservatory study and two music degrees in hand, Stephen Gabriel embarked on a career as an agent and representative to musicians, ensembles, and Broadway shows that lasted a decade. Beginning at Columbia Artists Management in 1990, he played a key role in launching Bobby McFerrin's classical conducting career and the introduction of the then unknown phenomenon STOMP. Moving to The Booking Group in 1996, he represented the concert touring career of Betty Buckley and oversaw the acquisition and booking of over 20 musical and touring attractions. Forming IntraMusic in late 2002, Gabriel focused his attention on music production, consulting and education. Recent projects include serving as music director/composer and production consultant for Christmas Dreams, a new family musical contracted to run through 2009 at the Grand Palace Theatre in Branson, MO. He also served as consultant for Macmillan/McGraw-Hill's 2005 music education textbook series entitled, Spotlight On Music, and was instrumental in developing the concept to include an MTI musical as a chapter in every elementary and middle school music textbook. This last accomplishment lead to an engagement with MTI (Music Theatre International) to explore new ways of bringing Broadway musicals to students of all ages - the result being a multi-city workshop and teacher enrichment tour in 2004-2005. IntraMusic Theatricals will produce its first musical entitled BROADWAY JUNIOR ON TOUR, VOL 1, to complement this grass roots educational effort.

TIM HERMAN is currently an adjunct professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey, and along with teaching Acting and Voice, he is also the Coordinator of the B.F.A. Musical Theatre Program. Recent Directing credits at MSU include Bat Boy: The Musical, Fiddler on the Roof, and Anton in Show Business by Jane Martin. A resident of NYC, his musical direction credits include Disney's Cinderella Kids and Disney's Sleeping Beauty Kids for MTI/Disney, Little By Little, and many various cabaret acts appearing at Don't Tell Mama, The Duplex, Rose's Turn, Danny's, and Dillons. He is also a private vocal and audition coach with clients appearing in Movin' Out, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Phantom of the Opera, and the upcoming Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

MARTY JOHNSON has been involved as a director, teacher, and playwright in the field of Theatre for Young Audiences for over 14 years. He has taught classes and workshops throughout the country including Virginia Stage Company in Norfolk, VA, which had great success touring two of Marty's plays, Africa Explains... and a new adaptation of The Emperor's New Clothes, which combines sign language and the spoken word. Before joining the MTI staff, Marty served as the Director of Education at North Shore Music Theatre, the Director of Education for Virginia Stage Company, the Director of Theatre for Youth at Karamu House in OH, the Assistant Director of Education for the Berkshire Theatre Festival and General Manager for the North Carolina Theatre for Young People. He received an MFA in Theatre for Youth from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and serves as a Respondent for Region One of the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival.

STEVEN G. KENNEDY discovered a love of music and dance while performing in Christmas on Angel Street as the "Perfume Salesman" at Oakdale Elementary School, directed by Mrs. Glasgow. This lead to a career as a musical theatre performer; highlights include the National Tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and on Broadway, Kenny Rogers' Christmas from the Heart. Steven never forgot Mrs. Glasgow and how her program enhanced his life. With her in mind he worked with Music Theatre International developing a line a choreographic videos and DVDs designed to make staging a musical with kids successful no matter how many left feet one may have. Steven is currently working with Disney Theatrical Productions to develop a similar line of choreographic DVDs for their KIDS Collection of musicals.

TIM McDONALD made his theatrical debut in the seventh grade all school production of Hootenanny! directed and written by Mrs. Dolores Bowman (whose other credits included the Spring Choral Concert and the Mother's Day Tea). Some time after the seventh grade, Tim's experience in Music, Theatre and Education led him to be recruited by Freddie Gershon at Music Theatre International to develop MTI's Broadway Junior Collection. As Director of Broadway Junior, Tim has worked with Stephen Sondheim, Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Schwartz and Sir Cameron Mackintosh in the adaptation of their works for middle-school aged people to perform. Tim wrote the book for the new musical Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka, in collaboration with the Roald Dahl estate and Leslie Bricusse. The show debuts at the Kennedy Center in November of 2004 and will tour North America through 2006. Most recently Tim has been working with Disney Theatrical adapting animation titles to live stage productions. Titles include Cinderella, The Jungle Book, 101 Dalmatians, Disney's Aladdin Junior, Sleeping Beauty, and Mulan. Tim is in regular contact with Mrs. Bowman, who is now retired and quite proud of his achievements.

WALLY MEIER - After 35 years of teaching high school art, Wally has retired from public school education. During these years, Wally started a local Community Theatre program, developed the high school musical in our school district, and most recently introduced the theatre arts to our middle school. Most of his time was spent in production design. With minimal budgets, space and time, the question was always, how do you create a scenic design with the maximum effect and the least amount of effort. After years of trial and error in designing scenery, and now being the biggest fan of the Broadway Junior Collection, Wally has developed a set concept that is geared to the Junior collection of shows. His "one-set-fits-all" design will hopefully accommodate all of these productions, making the transitions from one season to the next easy. All the art work will be provided for in such a way that your students can participate in its construction. Wally presented his design concepts at the Stage Direction Magazine conference held at the New York Hilton this past August, and has made several presentation in up-state New York at Arts in Education councils and county-wide middle school principal meetings. Wally's goal is to make available a user-friendly design and art plan for each of the shows in MTI's Broadway Junior Collection, keeping in mind that these are merely suggestions to enhance your production. If his work helps take some of the worry out of planning your scenery, then he will have done his job!

BILL NEWBERRY is an educator, actor, keyboardist, arranger/composer and musical director from Atlanta, Georgia. He just concluded the national tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Jon Secada. Bill is music director and creative consultant for Camp Broadway, a nationwide summer theatre arts camp for kids and teens. He also is a sought-after workshop leader and clinician for theatre and choral music. A vocal coach for many years, Bill has recently been very involved in working with one of his longtime voice students, Diana DeGarmo, finalist in last season's AMERICAN IDOL competition. Recent regional and national theatre credits include Joseph, The Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, A Chorus Line, Annie, Violet, and The Wizard of Oz. Bill is honored to be a part of the Junior Theatre Festival again, having been an adjudicator at the original Festival in 2003.

RUSSELL OCHOCKI began his stage career at the age of 10 as "Winthrop" in The Music Man With Forrest Tucker. He has appeared in over 60 productions including the National Tours of Can Can as "Boris," "Sohovik" in Damn Yankees, and "Barnaby" in Hello Dolly!. Regional productions include "Og" in Finian's Rainbow, "Hysterium" in ...Forum, and "Nathan" in Guys and Dolls, NY Premiers of: Pictures at an Exhibition, The Ventriloquist, and Roadside by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt. Russell also toured the world as "Garfield the Cat" and has written and directed shows for the famous feline at theme parks, National Tours, and other special events. His song "Discovering America" was used as a National Commercial for Embassy Suite hotels. Russell has served as a consultant for the National Symphony League and the Literacy in America Foundation for Family and Youth Projects. As a casting director he has consulted for several NY agencies. As a director and teacher he has conducted audition workshops and Musical Theatre performance workshops across the USA and Canada. Mr. Ochocki has directed over 100 productions for both youth and professional theater including Moby Dick the Musical for Cameron Mackintosh and Disney's Aladdin Junior For MTI's Broadway Junior Collection as well as the Garfield Family Concert show.

JOSH WEISGRAU is a production manager and scenic designer who has spent most of his professional career working in theatre with middle-school aged performers and audiences. He started working with children in theatre as Technical Director for Apple Farm Arts and Music Center Summer Camp and until recently served as Education Production Coordinator for the North Shore Music Theatre. At NSMT, Josh served as the production coordinator for the premieres of several Broadway Junior titles including Disney's Aladdin Junior, Disney's Cinderella Kids, Disney's The Jungle Book Kids, Ragtime: School Edition, The Phantom Tollbooth Junior, and God spell Junior. He also designed the scenery for Disney's Aladdin Junior, Ragtime: School Edition, and The Phantom Tollbooth Junior and lighting for God spell Junior.

GRAHAM WHITEHEAD was born in Egypt, raised in England, lived in Canada for almost thirty years and now resides in the United States. Since becoming a permanent resident of the U.S., he has taught at Arizona State University, served as an Associate Artistic Director at Childsplay in Tempe, Arizona, and worked as a freelance actor and director. Directing highlights include Fiddler on the Roof, Dear Esther, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Cabaret, Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Pippin, Carousel, Comedy of Errors, Driving Miss Daisy, Chorus Line, Rumours, Once Upon a Mattress, You Can't Take It With You, Comet in Moominland. For the Kennedy Center, Graham has directed The Reluctant Dragon, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, The Emporer's New Clothes, and most recently, the new musical Willy Wonka. As a playwright, he as written two plays, Just So Stories, and Peter and the Wolf, which have won awards as outstanding production from the international puppetry organization, UNIMA. At Childsplay, Graham has directed numerous pieces including Wolf Child, And The They Came For Me, Wind in the Willows, Selkie, Boxcar Children, Yellow Boat, and Eric and Elliott. He has appeared as Lincoln in Lincoln's Log and, dressed in extremely warm upholstery, he played the Chair in Y. York's Portrait, Wind and Chair. In addition, he directed Androcles and the Lion for Free Space Theatre in Orel, Russia, and made a cameo appearance as the voice of God in Castles in the Sky, which he directed and co-created with Gayle LaJoie. Playing God was much cooler than playing an armchair.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SESSIONS

Broadway Junior Update (Tim McDonald): Wondering about what new shows are coming out? Questions about licensing? Want to know how we do what we do? This workshop will tell you everything you want to know about Broadway Junior if you're not too afraid to ask.

Costume Design (Cynthia Ripley): Come learn some of the ins and outs of how to make costume designing for your school's shows a snap. Bring your current costume problems and we will do our best to make sure you leave with solutions.

Scenic Design (Wally Meier): First, hear about some great ideas to make scenic design easy regardless of your school budget, then get answers for your specific scenic design challenges.

Sound & Lighting Design (Steve Gabriel & Josh Weisgrau): All of your questions about how to make sure everyone in your cast can be seen and heard will be answered in this workshop with our two technical theatre professionals.

Theatre Games for Rehearsal (Marty Johnson and Graham Whitehead): This workshop is for anyone looking for new games and techniques to make their rehearsals more engaging and fruitful.

The All School Musical (Cindy Ripley & school administrators from Gowanda School System): If you have questions on how to get your school administrators support or want to learn some great techniques to get your entire school involved in your Broadway Junior production, than this is the workshop for you.

McMillian/McGraw Hill: Come and see samples of the Macmillan/McGraw-Hill's 2005 music education textbook series entitled, Spotlight On Music. In every elementary and middle school music textbook there is a chapter focusing on teaching musical theatre containing a mini-musical based on musicals from the MTI catalogue.

J.W. Pepper: Atlanta musical supply store, J.W. Pepper, will have a display of their musical books and Broadway Junior Showkits for you to take a look at.

STUDENT WORKSHOPS

Release Your Creativity (Jeremy James Taylor & Russell Ochocki): Students will learn new techniques to improve their acting. Led by the founder of Great Britain's National Youth Music Theatre, this interactive workshop is sure to inspire all of your students.

Vocal Master Class (Michael Orland & Derek Bowley): American Idol's musical director will work with different schools on both solo and group vocal techniques. Students will get a hands-on chance to work with the pros from the recording industry.

Showcase Rehearsal (Michael Orland & Steven G. Kennedy): Working with Broadway Junior's resident choreographer and American Idol's musical Director, every student will learn two songs and a dance that they will perform at the Closing Ceremony.

We are no longer accepting participants for the 2005 Junior Theatre Festival. If you have already registered and need to send in paperwork or payment, please download a Registration Form here and mail to:
[Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 to view the application form. Please click here to download it.]

Junior Theater Festival
421 West 54th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10019

Make all checks payable to Music Theatre International.

|top|

No sets or costumes will be allowed. Hand props may be used, but must be provided by each individual group. Each group will be allowed 15 minutes for adjudication which includes set-up and strike. Groups must perform to a Broadway Junior accompaniment CD. A sound system will be provided for you to operate. You must have performed a Broadway Junior musical in the '03 - '04 school year or have a license to perform one in the '04 - '05 school year.

|top|

January 14:

All day

Registration for all schools, traveling and local

3:00 - 11:00

Individual Group Rehearsal for traveling groups (set-up by Travel Adventures)

7:30 - 9:00

Teacher/Director Orientation Dinner

January 15: