First Stage Goes to National Theatre Festival

   This evening a group of parents and members of the First Stage family got a preview of the performance a group of First Stage actors have prepared for this weekend's Junior Theatre Festival. 

   They performed selections from the delightful musical Honk, ,Jr! - and they were terrific! 

   Here's more about the event they're taking part in:

   Students from Huntington's First Stage Theatre Company will be spending the weekend honing their craft at the 2017 iTheatrics Junior Theater Festival, happening Jan. 13-15 in Atlanta.

   Created by New York's iTheatrics and produced by the Junior Theater group, the iTheatrics Junior Theater Festival is the world's largest festival for student-driven musical theater programs. Musical theater professionals from Broadway and beyond connect directly with one of the largest live audiences of artists and arts' supporters of tomorrow.

   The iTheatrics Junior Theater Festival Atlanta will unite more than 6,000 students and educators from 115 educational musical theater groups representing 28 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, New Zealand, South Korea and Australia.

   Each group attending the iTheatrics Junior Theater Festival, which has been conducted since 2003, performs a 15-minute selection of a musical for a panel of theater professionals. The students representing First Stage Theatre Company will present Honk! JR. for adjudication.

   First Stage Theatre Company has enjoyed past success at the Junior Theater Festival. At the 2016 Junior Theater Festival, Students from First Stage Theatre Company won a Freddie G Excellence in Dance award, student Olivia Fosson received a Freddie G Outstanding Student Director and Choreographer award, and First Stage Theatre Company educator Ashleigh Bailey received a Freddie G Broadway Junior Slam Award. The Broadway Junior Slam is a theatrical challenge in which students and teachers who don't know each other must stage and perform a song from a musical in one hour. Additionally, Katie Fulks made it to the call-back for future Broadway Junior shoots for "how-to" choreography videos for soon-to-be-released Broadway Junior musicals.