iTheatrics to Launch First Junior Theater Festival West in Sacramento, 2/10-12

iTheatrics, the Junior Theater Group and the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) will collaborate on the first-ever Junior Theater Festival West (JTF West), February 10-12, 2017 in Sacramento, CA (#JTFWest), it was announced today by Timothy Allen McDonald, founding chairman of iTheatrics and the Junior Theater Group and Julie Theobald, EdTA Executive Director.

JTF West will bring students, teachers and Broadway professionals together to celebrate outstanding student theater productions and the transformative power of theater. The Junior Theater Group will produce JTF West, iTheatrics will provide educational supervision, and EdTA will provide programming exclusively for Junior Thespian troupes. iTheatrics and the Junior Theater Group will continue to produce the annual Junior Theater Festival held every Martin Luther King JR. weekend in Atlanta, GA (#JTFATL). JTF West's title sponsors are Music Theatre International (MTI), Disney Theatrical Group, and Playbill, Inc.®.

Says McDonald, "To me, this JTF West partnership personifies communication, collaboration, creative thinking and the other life skills that we all learn by being part of a musical. iTheatrics has had the pleasure of collaborating with EdTA on the JumpStart Theatre pilot and other programs over the years, and now we're pooling our strengths to create something truly remarkable together."

Theobald says, "By collaborating with iTheatrics, we will bring our middle school members, called Junior Thespians, and their teachers a whole new level of education, experience and excitement. By establishing a new west coast location together, we broaden access for students to benefit from rigorous workshops, focused performance adjudications for groups, and opportunities to work with professional artists of the highest caliber."

McDonald adds, "It is such an honor to spend an entire weekend collaborating with people who share a love of and dedication to theater. Our 2016 Junior Theater Festival this past January had 5,800 participants representing 115 theater groups from 28 states, Australia, Korea and New Zealand. It didn't matter if it was a Broadway star who performed on our stage or a student in her first production, each one of us left inspired and changed for the better. The Junior Theater Festival has come to the point at which more groups apply than we can accept. It is time to launch JTF West and we are delighted to have the perfect partner with which to do it."

Exclusive Day of Programming for Junior Thespians - During the day of Friday, February 10, JTF West will offer programming including Junior Individual Events and other Thespian activities exclusively for Troupes of Junior Thespians (middle school students) who are members of the International Thespian Society, operated by EdTA. Students will present a variety of works such as scenes, monologues, solos, group musical numbers and technical theatre portfolios.

Launch of JTF West - On Friday evening, February 10, the festival kicks off for all registered groups including Junior Thespian Troupes, as well as other school and community theater groups with elementary, middle and high school performers.

JTF West events on Saturday and Sunday - In the spirit of collaboration, students will present 15 minutes from a musical in Music Theatre International's Broadway JuniorTM library of titles for adjudication by a panel of leaders in education and theater. They will receive feedback on their connection to the material, story-telling, movement, music, acting and ensemble work.

Students and teachers will also take part in professional development and workshops honing skills on and offstage. They will attend a full concert performed by a leading actor or actress, preview new shows, and hear the next generation of composer and artists talk candidly about their experiences.

Most importantly they will have the opportunity to connect with hundreds of fellow educators, students and working artists who share their passion for theater.

About the Educational Theatre Association
The Educational Theatre Association (EdTA), is a national non-profit organization with approximately 100,000 members nationwide. EdTA's mission is shaping lives through theatre education: honoring student achievement in theatre and enriching their theatre education experience; supporting teachers; and influencing public opinion that theatre education is essential and builds life skills. EdTA operates the International Thespian Society (ITS), an honorary organization that has inducted more than two million students since its founding in 1929.

About the International Thespian Society
The International Thespian Society (ITS) is an honorary organization for high school and middle school theatre students and is in more than 4,200 affiliated schools across America, Canada, and abroad. The mission of ITS is to honor student achievement in the theatre arts and since its founding in 1929, more than two million students have been inducted. ITS is a division of the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA).

About iTheatrics
Founded in 2006 by educator and author Timothy Allen McDonald, and headquartered in New York City, iTheatrics is the world's leading authority on musical theatre for young people.

iTheatrics develops collections of musicals for leading musical theatre licensing agencies including the Getting To Know... Collection® (R&H Theatricals); the Young Performers' Edition of musicals (Tams-Witmark Music Library); Musicals 101 Collection (Samuel French); and the Broadway Junior Collection® and School Edition musicals (Music Theatre International and Disney Theatrical Group). Working with esteemed partners such as the President's Committee on Arts and the Humanities, New York City's Department of Education, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, McGraw-Hill Education and NBC Universal, iTheatrics develops and implements dynamic programs to build cost-effective and sustainable musical theatre programs in under-served schools. iTheatrics' annual Junior Theater Festival is the world's largest festival exclusively dedicated to celebrating young people and student-driven musical theater. Find out how you can make the world a better place - one musical at a time - at iTheatrics.com.

About MTI
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. During the past twenty years over 5,000,000 students and over 500,000 educators have been involved in at least one of the over 150,000 global productions of a Broadway Junior™ musical.

About Disney Theatrical Group
Disney Theatrical Group (DTG) 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 19 million people in more than 50 countries. Under the Disney Theatrical Productions banner, the group produces and licenses Broadway musicals 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, and Aladdin. Frozen, based on the Academy Award®-winning film, is slated to open on Broadway in 2018. 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 and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In addition, DTG 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.

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