From left, managing director for Trusty Sidekick Theater Company and a Disney Theatrical Group teaching artist Paul Brewster, student Rosalyn Williams, educator Robin Kato, music director and educator Derek Bowley (Kennedy Center tour and premiere of The Phantom Tollbooth, world premiere of The Trumpet of the Swan at the Kennedy Center).
Students from Wild Horse Children’s Theater in Carson City won a Freddie G Award for Excellence in Ensemble Work and earned other recognition at the 2019 Junior Theater Festival West from Feb. 8-10 at the Sacramento Convention Center and the Wells Fargo Pavilion in Sacramento. The Junior Theater Festival West united more than 2,000 students and educators from 44 educational musical theater groups representing 15 states and South Korea.
The Wild Horse Children’s Theater students presented selections from Junie B. Jones’ The Musical Jr. for Shay Rodgers, a choreographer who created and managed the Academy at Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars for more than a decade and who currently teaches at Wildfish Theatre and Houston High School for Theatre; Paul Brewster, managing director for Trusty Sidekick Theater Company and a Disney Theatrical Group teaching artist and Tali Allen, director of education and outreach at Stages St. Louis.
“Wild Horse Children’s Theatre worked so well as a team creating an environment that was so fun for the audience,” Rodgers said.
“It was the most supportive and best performing ensemble of the day,” Allen said. “They had great voices. It was a super fun performance.”
Wild Horse Children’s Theater’s Sydney Berg and Roslyn Williams made it to the callback for future Broadway Junior shoots for “how-to” choreography videos for soon-to-be released Broadway Junior musicals. The shoots will be taped in New York City this summer. The Broadway Junior scouts were on the lookout for outstanding students, 100 of whom made it to the final callback for iTheatrics resident choreographer Steven G. Kennedy. The final cast will be determined later this year. These videos will be used in tens of thousands of schools across the country and internationally.
Wild Horse Children’s Theater’s Braden Holub and Camilla Beckwith were named to the Junior Theater Festival All-Stars, made up of outstanding performers attending the festival. The All-Stars performed a song during the closing ceremony for all 2,000 festival attendees.
Produced by the Junior Theater Group in partnership with iTheatrics, a leading educational theater company that creates innovative experiences and products for the public and private sector, the Junior Theater Festival West and its sister festival, the Junior Theater Festival Atlanta, are the world’s largest festival celebrating young people and the transformative power of musical theater. This year’s title sponsors were Music Theatre International, Disney Theatrical Group, and Playbill, Inc. The 2019 Junior Theater Festival Atlanta united more than 6,600 students and educators from 133 educational musical theater groups representing 28 states, Australia, China, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The Junior Theater Festival was founded in 2003. In 2010, the festival became an annual event. In 2017, iTheatrics launched the inaugural Junior Theater Festival West.