Two Central Community Theatre Groups Headed to Junior Theater Festival

Submitted by Allison Ravenscroft of Ravenscroft Public Relations

    Two groups of students from Central Community Theater (CCT) here in Central will be traveling to the invitation-only 2011 Junior Theater Festival in Atlanta in January. 

    The CCT Elite Jr. group will be performing selections from  Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr., and will be  presenting the show in its entirety  on March 27, 2011 at 2:00pm at the Independence Park Theatre in Baton Rouge, LA.  They rehearse on Mondays from 7:30-9:00pm. 

    The CCT Elite Sr. group will perform selections from Disney’s Aladdin, Jr.  They will be presenting the show in its entirety on March 26, 2011 at 7:00 PM at Independence Park Theatre in Baton Rouge, LA.  They rehearse on Tuesdays from 7:00-9:00 PM.  CCT’s two productions are entirely choreographed by student choreographers Addie Dean and Alex Burns.  For more information please visit www.CentralCommunityTheatre.org.

    Central Community Theatre students have also enjoyed success at past festivals.  At the 2010 Junior Theater Festival, Central Community Theatre Junior Elite students presented selections from Annie Junior for adjudication by iTheatrics Chief choreographer Steven Kennedy and Deirdre Lavarkas, Kennedy Center teaching artist and the Central Community Theatre Senior Elite students presented selections from Disney’s High School Musical Jr. for Ken Cerniglia, dramaturg and literary manager for Disney Theatrical Productions, iTheatrics master teacher Cindy Ripley and Pat Briggs, the retired director of the Palo Alto Children’s Theater.

    The Junior Theater Festival is the world’s largest musical theatre festival dedicated to groups working with elementary and middle school students and is presented by Music Theatre International and produced by iTheatrics and Atlanta’s Theater of the Stars.  The 2011 Festival will be held at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, GA and will bring together more than 1,800 students, teachers, and Broadway professionals to raise their voices in celebration of on-stage and backstage excellence in musical theater.

    Drawing over 1,800 attendees from 50 schools and educational theater groups from across the U.S. and Canada, the Festival offers an enthusiastic environment for students and teachers to interact with thousands of others who share their passion for musical theater.  Each group performs a 15-minute selection of a musical for professional adjudication by a panel of distinguished theater professionals. In addition, both students and teachers participate in interactive workshops led by Broadway and West End professionals, gain from professional development, enjoy theatrical fellowship and attend a world-class professional production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at the fabulous Fox Theatre.  In true Junior Theater Festival form, student techies work side-by-side with festival staff in all aspects of the festival experience.

    The first Junior Theater Festival was held in January of 2003 and featured premieres of new MTI Education Broadway Junior titles Honk JR., Dear Edwina JR. and Godspell JR.  Starting in 2010, the festival has been an annual event.