Bernadette Peters & More to Join 2024 Shubert Foundation High School Theatre Festival

In its 10th year, more than 100 talented young NYC public school theatre artists will make their Broadway debuts in The 2024 Shubert Foundation High School Theatre Festival for NYC Public Schools on Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm at the Winter Garden Theatre. This annual theatre education experience for NYC students is presented by The Shubert Foundation and the NYC Department of Education Arts Office.

Bernadette Peters (Hello, Dolly!, Follies) will host this year’s 10th annual event. Additional guest presenters, supporting public school theatre education, will include James Caverly (Children of a Lesser God), Miguel Cervantes (Hamilton), Charlotte d’Amboise (Chicago), Jeanna de Waal (Sweeney Todd), Trechelle Edmond (for colored girls...), Drew Gehling (Almost Famous), Tamar Greene (Hamilton), Anika Larsen (Almost Famous), Apollo Levine (MJ), Julian Elijah Martinez (Network), Gary Perez (Between Riverside and Crazy), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent), Seth Rudetsky (Disaster!), Brandon Uranowitz (Leopoldstadt), and Kara Young (Purlie Victorious).

The Shubert Festival celebrates six outstanding high school student productions from the 2023-24 school year, selected from more than 20 productions across the city by professional theatre artists and theatre educators. Over the course of the festival’s 10-year history, school productions from all five 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:

TITANIC – Professional Performing Arts High School (Manhattan)
JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT – Lexington School for the Deaf

(Queens)
MAMMA MIA! – Curtis High School (Staten Island)
ZANNA DON’T! – Repertory Company High School for Theatre Arts (Manhattan) TITANIC – Frank Sinatra School of the Arts (Queens)
URINETOWN – Brooklyn High School for the Arts (Brooklyn)

The Shubert High School Theatre Festival showcases the ongoing excellent theatre work currently taking place in NYC public high schools, as well as highlighting the crucial skills of theatre study 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 dedicated theatre program can have on students and school communities, enabling students to see theatre and the arts as a potential career path.

“We have seen almost 2,000 of our talented scholars make their Broadway debuts in the annual for NYC Public Schools. Celebrating its impressive 10th anniversary this year, this thrilling event makes a profound and lasting impact on our young people, their futures as professional artists and arts administrators, and on NYC Public Schools' arts education initiatives,” said Schools Chancellor David C. Banks. “We deeply appreciate our partners at the Shubert Foundation for their continued commitment to and investment in this program that enriches the lives of our students and their communities.”

“A program that has thrived for 10 years is an impressive achievement by any measure and we salute the talent of our students and the stellar drama programs of our NYC public schools that are so integral to this success,” said Diana Phillips, President of The Shubert Foundation. “When the festival began, few outside the school communities knew about these outstanding theatre programs but that has now changed. Our Shubert Foundation High School Theatre Festival has given the students and their teachers a far wider stage and even  experienced theatre goers tell us that this night is one of their favorite Broadway events. We could not be more proud."

Sponsored by The Shubert Foundation, the Festival is presented in partnership with the New York City Public Schools’ (NYCPS) Arts Office. A 2023-24 Shubert Foundation grant of $730,000 funds the Festival and supports a range of existing theatre and arts education programs in New York City public schools.

Since 2005, The Shubert Foundation has provided more than $8.6 million to the New York City Department of Education for Theatre and arts education programs.

 “When students create theater together, they demonstrate the highest levels of education—applying technique, understanding the context of the play and communicating with others towards a common powerful reminder how theatre provides a welcoming place for artists and audiences of all ages to connect, to invest, to empathize...to heal,”
goal. The Festival serves as a Artistic Producer and the Director of Theatre for New York City Public Schools.