One of the greatest parts of being undeniably dedicated and addicted to musical theater is that you are constantly surrounded by a plethora of individuals who share the same passion; especially in high school. High school is abnormally the "best and/or worst time of your life" in just a mere four years. It is a one of the most formative times in an individual's life, when one truly begins to become the sort of individual that will carry them well into adulthood.  This is why the performing arts are vital in my personal high school career. If I am unhappy with my own life, through theatre, I am afforded the ability to step into another character's shoes and "become them" practically every day. Because I am so active in theater, my entire friend-base consists of other thespians that I have performed with in the past. These bonds and talents exist, not only in the local community theatre troupes, but in my own high school's theater program as well.  I believe the incredible ability to work together on stage in spite of personality conflicts, extreme exhaustion at times, vast differences in age, and the daily "drama" of a typical high school student's life is one of the factors that makes the Hilton Head Christian Academy's drama department so successful and why it has been a major component in shaping so many spectacular young adults.

PIANO SLAM 8, an annual competition for writing poetry inspired by music for Miami-Dade County's middle and high school students, presents its 16 finalists for an exciting and engaging live performance at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, April 13th at 7:30pm. The mission of PIANO SLAM is to utilize music as a tool and motivation to give youth a voice and develop creative writing skills through artistic expression. 

The first-ever adapted version of GREEN DAY'S AMERICAN IDIOT intended for performance by high school students is currently in development and will debut on April 14. The pilot production is being presented by Jonathan Dayton High School in Springfield, New Jersey.  Check out a sneak peek below!

Santa Susana High School, a award winning performing arts high school in Simi Valley, California presents: The Addams Family. Presented in our state of the art Performing Arts Center, the dates for the 6 show run are April 22, 23, 29 and 30. Santa Susana High School continues their tradition of producing top quality productions utilizing student producers, co directors, production orchestra and a student crew for sound, set, stage and tech support all led by our amazing teaching staff. In addition, this cast contain two actors nominated for 2015 Jerry Herman Awards (Grant Measures and Josh Ponce.)  This is a can't miss event!

Guilderland High School's drama club, The Guilderland Players, will open their 47th musical on March 10th with a production of the Tony Award winning hit, 42nd Street. The show, originally appearing on Broadway in 1980, features music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Al Dubin, and a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble.

Nashville audiences this weekend find themselves with two concurrently running opportunities to bask in the warm glow of Miranda's heartfelt creation as Hume-Fogg Academic High School's Theatre presents In The Heights for a three-performance run (which premiered last night - on Broadway, naturally, Nashville's Broadway) and Street Theatre Company, which tonight opens its 11th season with its mounting of the show that will run for the next three weekends.

Broadway World Austin continues our series looking into Austin area theatres with the Fine Arts Academy at McCallum High School. As Austin ISD's district-wide fine arts intensive high school program, it provides arts education for 9th - 12th grade students pursuing an accelerated arts curriculum as fine arts majors. McCallum Fine Arts Academy attracts a diverse student body from all over Austin, including students who attended public, private, and home middle schools. We sat down to talk to director Joshua Denning to get a deeper look into this program that is producing theatre that holds up to the work being produced on any stage in town.

BroadwayWorld interviews Ron S. McCan, director of The Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts' spring musical, CABARET. Ron is the Assistant Director of the Theatre Program at Asawa SOTA and an alum of SOTA?s Technical Theatre Department (Class of 1995).

The busiest times of the musical theater world is quickly coming amongst us, especially for high school thespians- spring show season. Community and local theaters are either holding auditions or waiting for a stressful week of tech before productions that have the potential to be massive moments in the theater and community history.  For high school students, this is the most exhilarating, yet draining, season of the year. Fortunately- I am one of these students. 

This past weekend, the Clay High School Fine Arts Department opened and closed the show The Curious Savage with two different casts of students and two different interpretations by two different directors. I saw the first cast which was comprised of two seniors, five juniors, and four freshman and directed by Kathryn Hein.

Basque school puts on a big show: Costumes, props, sets--all, impeccably done. Their chief assets are the students, whose talent gives this show life.

The Chaminade Players, the award-winning drama troupe at Chaminade College Preparatory High School, present THE ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL, opening March 4 in the Tutor Family Center for the Performing Arts on the West Hills campus at 7500 Chaminade Ave.

My name is Justin Rubenstein, and I am a first year Junior at Dreyfoos School of the Arts. I am fortunate enough to be a part of the spring production of Shrek: the Musical, which has been nothing short of a magical experience. In Shrek, I play the characters Papa Shrek, a Duloc Guard, and a Knight. Although I was also in the fall production of Romeo and Juliet, this was the first time that I have ever been involved in a musical theatre production even close to this caliber. There have been a tremendous amount of new ideas, practices, and methods I had never been involved in and, pairing this with more technical aspects to a show than I have ever encountered, makes this one of the most enjoyable and educational shows I've been a part of to date.

Hey Y'all! I'm Dylan T. Jackson and I'm playing "Donkey" in the upcoming Dreyfoos School of The Arts production of "Shrek: The Musical." Having the opportunity of being involved in a lot of shows here at Dreyfoos, I can honestly say we've never done anything like this in my years here. It's a humongous show to carry, especially being one of the leads. Donkey is the most energetic, athletic and fun-filled character in the show. One would think it'd be easy to play him but it's actually pretty difficult. The hard part for me is staying present in every single moment as Donkey would. What's harder is not speaking but listening to other characters and responding just as energetic as you are when speaking. 

What do small children, stage mothers, cows, egg rolls and strippers have in common?  Gypsy, of course, Riverdale Rising Stars' multi-generational show this season!

With music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls and book by William F. Brown, THE WIZ is an urban retelling of the classic fantasy story based on the children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Filled with beloved songs, incredible dance numbers, tornadoes, munchkins, and skateboarding monkeys, the enthusiasm of the cast as directed and choreographed by Chelsea Field and magnificent student rock orchestra conducted by Stephen McDonough under the Musical Direction of Kelci Hahn, will transport you in believing this is a professional company of triple threat actors at the top of their game.

Even as a high school student, Brandon Hoyt is something of a renaissance man: he sings, he dances, he acts - and he's into information technology, he's a whiz at math and science, he's considering a college career that includes any number of top level universities and the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. And he's a 2016 First Night Most Promising Actor, part of a cadre of young actors from area colleges and high schools who have already distinguished themselves both onstage and offstage.

A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts presents SHREK THE MUSICAL, Saturday, February 27 - March 6, 2016.

Inspiration comes from strange places! For me, it seems to come from people saying profound things on accident. Today's 'out of context life lesson' comes from Rupaul's Drag Race contestant and all-around wonder woman, Mrs. Kasha Davis. Do yourself favor and check this lady out, because she is an absolute doll. Sweet, funny, talented, and charismatic, Mrs. Davis is a terrific entertainer and personality. The other day she appeared on YouTube's WOWPresents's segment "Ring My Bell," where callers can phone in and speak with drag icons. Right off the bat, Mrs. Davis shows her wise and caring side when a caller named Houston requests some advice for people just starting out in drag. She tells them, "Number one: there's a lot of gals out there that have paved the way - watch them, get some ideas, pull from those. Number two: practice, practice, practice! And number three - just own it! Whatever it is you're going to do, own it and love it and everyone will too!"

I always think to myself how when you love doing something, you put your blood, sweat, and tears into it. That happens with most theatre kids. As performers, we experience bruises, broken nails, concussions, wounds, battle scars, other physical injuries, but we also experience deep, emotional connections that will stick with us for the rest of our lives that we'll always cherish. 

Last weekend, during a slight break from preparations for Oliver!, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Georgia Thespian Conference (affectionately referred to as Thescon, or THESCAAAHHHN by my friends in troupe 5362). I can genuinely say it was one of the most fun times I've had to date. Kindred theatre-loving spirits from far and wide (AKA, the state of Georgia) came together to do workshops, to sign up for college auditions, compete in individual events, and to watch shows put on by their peers. It was incredible to me that even though most of us had never seen each other before, everyone was treated like a friend to everyone else; I found myself having a five minute conversation with a complete stranger about a common show we had done and (coincidentally) both worn t-shirts for. Attending this convention was not only an extremely educational experience, but also rather humbling, and it was quite special to be able to get a larger-scale representation of what the art form is all about.

This past weekend my high school theatre troupe attended Georgia Thespian Conference (We call it Thescon), and it was my first time experiencing the beauty of it all. When I asked my friends about their favorite memories, Hope Emerson said, "I loved just being able to be myself the whole time with all my friends, and no one judged because we were all there for the same reason- our love for theatre!" This made me think about the incredibleness of it all- how over 4,000 theatre kids in high school across the state came together to experience a weekend of workshops and watching several schools perform amazing shows. 

I can't use a hammer. I don't know how to use a power saw. I'm not familiar with how mics work, and probably would not be able to mic myself, let alone anyone else. The most  know about lighting is pulling a cord on a lamp. But that's okay, because I'm an actor. I'm a writer. I'm a dancer, and I'm a director. I'm much better at "painting the picture" than painting the set piece. However, don't think I'm neglecting tech all together. My senior year I plan to tech my first show, but for now, I'm content where I am. There's also the fact that I'm not very good at tech. I don't know what makes me bad at it, I just know that I am. But there are people out there who are brilliant techies. I mean, absolute technical geniuses. It amazes me, seeing as tech theatre has protocols and rules and directions, and yet holds so much creativity.

The stages waiting for the cast list are those that are very familiar to all theater geeks around the world. When we channel our inner Princess Fiona and spend all day singing "I Know It's Today" because it is oh so applicable to our current state of mind. 

Everybody knows the old saying: "There are no small parts, only small actors." Back in December, my theatre troupe at school was in the midst of filming auditions for our production of Ghost the Musical when our director announced that there would be a separate round of auditions for those specifically interested in ensemble positions. This came as a nice surprise seeing as the majority, including myself, tend to go for the leads or supporting roles when audition time rolls around. Similarly, it's happened many times where I've been disappointed when I've gotten "stuck" in the ensemble when I was expecting something a little "bigger." I got to thinking about why the ensemble gets overlooked or underappreciated so much, and whether or not I should have been disappointed. After all, I never seemed to have less fun doing a show because I wasn't a lead role. I think people tend to consider the ensemble as a comparatively small or insignificant role in the span of the entire production, and from this I began to make conclusions about whether or not the old saying reigns true: Is there really no such thing as a small part?