Shubert Foundation and Music Theatre International Will Host 19th Broadway Junior Student Celebration

The 19th annual Shubert Foundation/Music Theatre International Broadway Junior Student Finale will take place on Thursday, May 23, 2024 at 11:15 a.m. at Broadway's Ambassador Theatre (219 West 49th Street). Co-hosting the event this year are Apollo Levine (MJ The Musical) and Samantha Pauly (The Great Gatsby). The Shubert Foundation / MTI Broadway Junior partnership is a groundbreaking musical theatre mentorship program that helps public schools affect school culture change through building sustainable theatre education programs. Hundreds of participating students will share musical numbers from their fully produced school shows at the Finale. For many, their first musical theatre experience performing will be on Broadway.

New York City Public School students from Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island will perform numbers from their full school productions of Broadway musicals. The shows include Disney's Aladdin JR., Annie JR., Fame The Musical JR., Disney's Frozen JR., Disney's High School Musical JR., Into the Woods JR., Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical JR., Shrek The Musical JR., Disney's The Lion King JR., Disney's The Little Mermaid JR. and Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka JR.

The program is sponsored by The Shubert Foundation, Music Theatre International (MTI) and New York City Public Schools (NYCPS). In attendance at the Broadway Junior Student Finale will be Diana Phillips, President of The Shubert Foundation, President and CEO of Music Theatre International Drew Cohen, representatives from the NYC Schools Arts Office, prominent NYC arts educators, and leading members of New York's professional theatre community.

“New York City is home to some of the greatest arts and cultural institutions in the world. Opportunities like this give our students the confidence to pursue their artistic dreams and create memories that last a lifetime,” said Schools Chancellor David C. Banks. “I am grateful to our partners at the Shubert Foundation and Music Theatre International for their commitment to the arts and to our young people.”

"Every year, our middle school students light up a Shubert stage with their exuberant performances and uplift us all with their infectious spirit and energy,” said Diana Phillips, President of The Shubert Foundation. “Almost 30,000 students have now benefitted from this remarkable program and it is both a joy and a privilege for us to participate in these formative and memorable experiences.” 

“From its inception, Music Theatre International has been a proud partner of The Shubert Foundation and the NYC Public Schools as we all help bring the joy of musical theatre to young people and their communities,” said Drew Cohen, President and CEO of Music Theatre International. “Theatre builds collaboration, perseverance, empathy, confidence and creativity – skills that will help students succeed in school and in life. We are grateful to the students, of course, and also to the teachers, teaching artists, and parents who make this opportunity a reality for the children.”

“How amazing that these middle schools are building the capacity to produce inclusive musicals for their school communities,” shared NYCPS Director of Theater Peter Avery. “To then have their kids share what they learned, their collaboration, their creativity on a Broadway stage…priceless!”

The Shubert Foundation / MTI Broadway Junior program engages students in all aspects and areas of the arts, utilizing master teachers and expert production advisers from the educational theatre organizations, iTheatrics, Broadway Bound Kids and ArtsConnection.

In the first year of the program, teachers and students are guided step-by-step through the process of producing a first-ever musical in their schools. In the second year, teachers and students continue to receive support and encouragement on their second musical, but take ownership over their productions. In the third year and beyond, schools present a musical independently, and serve as inspiration for other schools involved in earlier cycles of the program.

The 2024 Broadway Junior Student Finale will present performances from middle school groups participating in the second year of the program: 

• Arts & Letters 305 United (Brooklyn)
• Brownsville Collaborative Middle School of Agriculture and Technology (Brooklyn)
• Fort Greene Preparatory Academy (Brooklyn)
• M.S. 202 Robert H. Goddard (Queens)
• M.S. 337 The School for Inquiry and Social Justice (Bronx)
• P.S. 218 Rafael Hernández Dual Language School (Bronx)
• P.S. 347 The American Sign Language & English Lower School (Manhattan)
• P.S. 48 William G. Wilcox (Staten Island)
• P.S./I.S. 116 The William C. Hughley School (Queens)
• P.S./I.S. 217 Roosevelt Island (Manhattan)
• P.S./M.S. 31 The Willliam Lloyd Garrison School (Bronx)
• P753K Brooklyn School for Career Development (District 75)
• Queens Gateway to Health Sciences Secondary School
• Vista Academy (Brooklyn)
• Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (Manhattan) 

Year Three and Graduated Schools participating in the Shubert/ MTI Musical Ensembles: 

• Andries Hudde School (Brooklyn)
• Evergreen Middle School for Urban Exploration (Brooklyn)
• Frederick Douglass Academy VIII (Brooklyn)
• I.S 131 The Albert Einstein School (Bronx)
• I.S. 136 Charles O. Dewey (Brooklyn)
• I.S. 96 Seth Low (Brooklyn)
• Jonas Bronck Academy (Bronx)
• The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology (Bronx)
• M.S. 158 Marie Curie Middle School (Queens)
• M.S. 331 The Bronx School of Young Leaders
• M.S. 442 School For Innovation (Brooklyn)
• M.S. 72 Catherine & Count Basie School (Queens)
• M.S. 915 Bridges (Brooklyn)
• M.S. 935 (Brooklyn)
• P.S. 111 Jacob Blackwell School (Queens)
• P.S./I.S.30 Mary White Ovington School (Brooklyn)
• P.S./M.S. 4 Crotona Park West (Bronx)
• Soundview Academy (Bronx)

THE SHUBERT FOUNDATION

Since 2005, The Shubert Foundation has provided more than $8.6 million to New York City Public Schools for Theatre/Arts programs. This year marks the Foundation's 19th year providing funds for The Shubert Foundation/MTI Broadway Junior program which was founded during the 2005-2006 school year. To date, 183 schools and more than 28,000 students have participated in the program. Currently over 120 schools are involved in the program.

The Shubert Foundation, Inc. is the largest institutional funder of theatre education programs throughout NYC public schools and the nation's largest private foundation dedicated to unrestricted funding of not-for-profit theatres, with a secondary focus on dance. In 2023, the Foundation provided $38 million to 636 not-for-profit performing arts organizations across the United States. The Shubert Foundation, Inc. was established in 1945 by the legendary team of brothers, Lee and J.J. Shubert. Since 1977, more than $613 million has been awarded to not-for-profit arts organizations throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.shubertfoundation.org.

MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL

About Music Theatre International and Broadway Junior Music Theatre International (MTI) is one of the world's leading theatrical licensing agencies, granting theatres from around the world the rights to perform the greatest selection of musicals from Broadway and beyond. Founded in 1952 by composer Frank Loesser and orchestrator Don Walker, MTI is a driving force in advancing musical theatre as a vibrant and engaging art form. MTI works directly with the composers, lyricists and book writers of these musicals to provide official scripts, musical materials and dynamic theatrical resources to over 100,000 professional, community and school theatres in the US and in over 150 countries worldwide. MTI is particularly dedicated to educational theatre, and has created special collections to meet the needs of various types of performers and audiences. MTI's Broadway Junior shows are 30- and 60-minute musicals for performance by elementary and middle school-aged performers, while MTI's School Editions are musicals annotated for performance by high school students. MTI maintains its global headquarters in New York City with additional offices in London (MTI Europe) and Melbourne (MTI Australasia).www.mtishows.com.

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