Students from PS 124 in Manhattan earned a Freddie G Outstanding Achievement in Acting Award at the 2012 Junior Theater Festival, a monumental celebration of on-stage and backstage excellence which happened January 13-15 in Atlanta. Presented by New York’s iTheatrics and Atlanta’s Theater of the Stars and sponsored by leading theatrical licensor Music Theatre International, Disney Musicals, and NBC, the Junior Theater Festival is the world’s largest musical theater festival dedicated to groups working with elementary school, middle school and high school aged students.
The 25 students representing PS 124, ages 9 and 10, presented selections from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast JR. for adjudication by a panel of national theatre professionals: Music director, teacher, and vocal coach Bill Newberry; director, choreographer and performer Jacob Brent; and Kennedy Center director Deirdre Kelly Lavrakas.
PS 124 students Sarah Chiu and David Ning were named to the Broadway JR. All-Stars, made up of two outstanding students from each group at the festival. The All Star students performed the song “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from
Hairspray! at the closing ceremonies.
Local audiences will get a chance to see these young thespians in action for themselves when the multilingual group (some speak Mandarin and/or Cantonese as well as English) performs their full-length version of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast JR. in PS 124’s auditorium during the school’s Chinese New Year celebrations January 31st and February 1st and 2nd.
This is the groups second time at the Junior Theater Festival. Last year the students presented selections from Guys and Dolls JR. for all 3,000+ festival attendees.
Students from PS 124 drama department are active in their community. They’ve been selected to perform at a fundraising event for The Museum of the Chinese in America as well as celebrations for PS 124’s 35th Anniversary this past year.
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