Disney Musicals in Schools Puts MMSD Students in the Spotlight

On May 23, more than 180 elementary students from Madison will have the extraordinary opportunity to sing and dance onstage at Overture Center for the Arts as the result of a grant awarded to Overture by Disney.

The grant from Disney enables Overture to offer the Disney Musicals in Schools program to three new schools in Madison this year: Frank Allis Elementary School, Leopold Elementary School and Nuestro Mundo Community School. The program is designed to create sustainable theater program in elementary schools. Through the program, participating schools produce a Disney KIDS musical in their school community and join in a culminating performance at Overture.

"Disney Musicals in Schools addresses one of our biggest goals - creating equitable access to the arts," said Ted DeDee, Overture's president and CEO. "Through the program, we can create meaningful and sustainable musical theater opportunities for students who would not otherwise be able to experience it. By being immersed in creating art with their peers and discovering the joys and confidence that comes from the process of learning to perform, students are making memories and developing skills to last a lifetime. In addition, through the structure of the program teachers learn and develop their skills, setting up for long term musical theater programs at their schools."

The selected schools participated in a 17-week musical theater residency, led by a team of teaching artists trained by Overture and Disney Theatrical Productions, at no cost. Each school received performance rights, educational support materials and guidance from the teaching artists. The program featured a professional development focus, through which participating school teachers partnered with Overture teaching artists to learn how to produce, direct, choreograph and music direct, culminating in their first 30-minute Disney KIDS musical at their school.

Frank Allis Elementary School and Leopold Community School will be performing The Lion King KIDS and Nuestro Mundo Community School will be performing The Jungle Book KIDS.

The Student Share Celebration on May 23, 2018, is the culmination of this year's program.

Four additional schools: Falk Elementary School, Glendale Elementary School, Hawthorne Elementary School and Mendota Elementary School will also produce musicals at their schools this Spring as participating alumni schools.

Disney Musicals in Schools was launched in 2010 in response to Disney Theatrical Production's concern that under-resourced public elementary schools were not afforded equitable access to the arts. After successfully offering the program in New York City schools, Disney Theatrical Productions began collaborating with organizations in other communities across the United States.

Disney KIDS musicals, created in partnership with Music Theater International (MTI), are 30-minute musicals designed for elementary school performers and have been adapted from the classic Disney films 101 Dalmatians, Aladdin, The Aristocats, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, and Winnie the Pooh. For more information on Disney Musicals in Schools, visit: disneymusicalsinschools.com

Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, Wis., features seven state-of-the-art performance spaces and five galleries where national and international touring artists, ten resident companies and hundreds of local artists engage people in nearly 700,000 educational and artistic experiences each year. Overture.org

Disney Theatrical Productions (DTP) operates under the direction of Thomas Schumacher and is among the world's most successful commercial theatre enterprises, bringing live entertainment events to a global annual audience of more than 20 million people in more than 50 countries. Under the Disney Theatrical Productions banner, the group produces and licenses Broadway productions around the world, including Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida, TARZAN®, Mary Poppins, a co-production with Cameron Mackintosh, The Little Mermaid, Peter and the Starcatcher, Newsies, Aladdin, and Frozen. Other successful stage musical ventures have included the Olivier-nominated London hit Shakespeare in Love, stage productions of Disney's High School Musical, Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame in Berlin, and King David in concert. DTP has collaborated with the country's leading regional theatres to develop new stage titles including The Jungle Book, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Freaky Friday.

Disney Theatrical Productions also delivers live shows globally through its license to Feld Entertainment, producer of Disney on Ice and Disney Live! For over 30 years, Disney on Ice and Disney Live! have brought beloved Disney stories and characters annually to over 12 million guests in nearly 50 countries worldwide, through productions such asMarvel Universe Live! and Frozen, the most well attended and highest grossing Disney on Ice production to date. In addition, DTP licenses musical titles for local, school and community theatre productions through Music Theatre International, including The Lion King Experience, a unique holistic arts education program wherein accredited elementary and middle schools produce condensed, age-appropriate JR. and KIDS adaptations of The Lion King.

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 70,000 professional, community and school theatres in the US and in over 60 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.

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