Photo Flash: Teens Write Tunes for the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge

The final presentation of the recently expanded Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge, took place just last night. This year's Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge finalists included Eliza Corrington & Braxton Gerald Carr, Tucker Donelan, Jillian Guetersloh, Fritz Hager, Aaron Richert, and David Volpini. Check out photos from inside the special night below!

Challenge Judges included: Amanda Green, Tim Federle, Darius de Haas, George Salazar, and Kamilah Forbes; Challenge Mentors Cesar Alvarez, Max Vernon, Shakina Nayfack, Ty Defoe, Tidtaya Sinutoke, Anna Jacobs, and J. Oconer Navarro; National Endowment for the Arts Director of Theater and Musical Theater Greg Reiner and American Theatre Wing CEO & President Heather Hitchens.

The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge is a national program available to all high school songwriters working in any musical genre. Applicants submitted a recording of an original song that could appear in a musical theater show. Six regional winners have been selected for a trip to NYC to work with professional musicians, singers, songwriters, and producers during an intense weekend of workshops. The performance of their song by those musicians and singers will be judged by a panel of esteemed musical theater artists as the final competition. One of the six will be selected as the national champion, and will receive a $25,000 school scholarship courtesy of the National Music Publishers Association and their S.O.N.G.S. Foundation. All finalists will receive a music publishing deal with Samuel French, the world's leading licensor and publisher of plays and musicals. The competition will be webcast from the Greene Space in New York City.

Photo Credit: Stephanie Berger