VIDEO: James Monroe Iglehart, Stephen Schwartz & More Appear at Shubert Foundation High School Theatre Festival

Over 100 talented young NYC public school theatre artists made their VIRTUAL Broadway debuts in this special 2021 edition of The Shubert Foundation High School Theatre Festival for NYC Public Schools.

James Monroe Iglehart (Hamilton) hosted this year's seventh annual event, usually performed live on the stage of a Broadway theatre. Additional guest presenters, supporting public school theatre education, included 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).

Watch clips below!

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 presented 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

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