James Monroe Iglehart Hosts The 2021 High School Theatre Festival Presented By The Shubert Foundation Tonight

Over 100 talented young NYC public school theatre artists will make their VIRTUAL Broadway debuts in this special 2021 edition of The Shubert Foundation High School Theatre Festival for NYC Public Schools. Premiering on Wednesday, May 26 at 7PM ET, viewers can stream the event at www.shubert.nyc. This annual high profile and high energy theatre education experience for NYC students is presented by The Shubert Foundation and the NYC Department of Education Arts Office.

James Monroe Iglehart (Hamilton) will host this year's seventh annual event, usually performed live on the stage of a Broadway theatre. Additional guest presenters, supporting public school theatre education, will include Linda Cho (Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder), Brandon Victor Dixon (NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar), Treshelle Edmond (Children of a Lesser God), Amelia Hensley (Spring Awakening), Nikki M. James (The Book of Mormon), Zachary Noah Piser (Dear Evan Hansen) and Stephen Schwartz (Wicked).

The Festival's inspired virtual production excerpts reflect the professionalism, the focus and the passions of our NYC public school students from diverse backgrounds and identities who came together with at least one common goal - to tell stories and build bridges. Under widely challenging circumstances, each student artist found time and space to rehearse and record their individual performance on smartphones and laptops so audiences everywhere could enjoy their artistry and collaboration.

The Festival celebrates five outstanding high school student productions from the 2020-21 school year, selected from over 25 productions across the city by professional theatre artists and theatre educators. Over the course of the festival's seven-year history, school productions from all 5 boroughs have performed at the event.

This year, student presentations from the following schools will present excerpted scenes and musical numbers in order as follows:

Curtis High School (Staten Island) - Beautiful City from GODSPELL

Fordham High School for the Arts (Bronx) - TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992

Lexington School for the Deaf (Queens) - DIVERSE CONNECTIONS

Millennium Brooklyn High School (Brooklyn) - FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE

Professional Performing Arts High School (Manhattan) - ROMEO AND JULIET

Renaissance High School for Musical Theater and the Arts (Bronx) - JUST ANOTHER DAY 2.0

The High School Theatre Festival showcases the ongoing excellent theatre work currently taking place in NYC public high schools, as well as highlighting the positive effects of theatre study on skills for the stage and in life: collaboration, artistry, discipline, focus, literacy, student voice, self-awareness, presence, and empathy. The evening focuses on the impact that a full theatre program can have on students and school communities and enables students to see theatre and the arts as a potential career path.

"This has been an unprecedented year, and we've witnessed the power of the arts to build resiliency and creativity in our school communities," said Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter. "I am so proud of these students and their hard work, and I want to thank the Shubert Foundation for supporting this event and theater education in our schools."

"Covid-19 put an end to much we valued over this past year, but it has only further inspired our unstoppable New York City Public High School students" said Diana Phillips, President of The Shubert Foundation. "For the second year in a row, and with the guidance of the Department of Education's Theatre Office, our students have given masterful virtual performances that showcase their extraordinary range and ability. Congratulations to them and to Peter Avery and their teachers. May we all celebrate the return of this wonderful program to a Shubert stage next year!"

Sponsored by The Shubert Foundation, the festival is presented in partnership with the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE). Funding for the Festival and for a range of existing Shubert Foundation programs in New York City public schools comes from a grant of $586,000 for 2020-21.

Since 2005, The Shubert Foundation has provided more than $6.6 million to the New York City Department of Education for Theatre and arts education programs.

"We honor and celebrate our creative public high school students representing every borough. A powerful reminder how theatre provides a welcoming place for artists and audiences of all ages to connect, to listen, to reflect, to invest, to empathize...to heal. Theatre also entertains. Tonight we feature outstanding student performances that interweave message and artistry," said Peter Avery, the Festival's producer and the Director of Theatre for the NYC Department of Education.