On the weekend of January 16th, 7,000 people traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, to compete in the world’s biggest musical theatre competition, Junior Theatre Festival (JTF). Among those 7,000 people were some of GRC’s students: Lauren McCraith, Addison Moore, and McKinley Harper.
For these three, it was their first time going to JTF, let alone a musical theater competition. They went with their theater company, ACTivate, in Lexington.
At JTF, the groups compete for awards. They perform 10-15 minutes from any Broadway Junior musical in front of a panel of judges. For ACTivate, they chose to do “Beetlejuice Jr.” to highlight their students’ talent. McKinley played Lydia, the gothic teen, and Addison and Lauren performed in the ensemble.
“We started to prepare for Beetlejuice at the beginning of our ACTivate season,” said Harper. “After our fall performance, we dedicated our rehearsals to JTF, focusing on scenes and dances.”
While all the competing groups are accustomed to performing in front of a crowd on a stage, JTF presented a new challenge for them. They were not allowed to use sets, props, or microphones. Additionally, they performed on a carpeted ballroom floor instead of a stage.
“By limiting these things, it ensures that groups and schools with fewer resources are able to be adjudicated on their acting, singing, and dancing, rather than being adjudicated solely on the production aspect,” Moore said.
To replace sets and props, the groups had to get creative to produce a performance worthy of winning awards.
“The ensemble made tableaus and morphed into the different sets, such as Adam and Barbara’s house, the Deet’s house, and Beetlejuice’s house,” said McCraith. “We also had to embody the energy shift within each set.”
The long rehearsal hours leading up to the competition, which were spent working through these challenges, learning hard choreography, and learning songs were not easy.
“Those hours are very important to clean the show and make sure everything is as good as it can be for adjudication,” McCraith said.
Luckily for ACTivate, their hard work paid off.
“We won an award for Excellence in Acting, which I did not expect,” Moore said. “Not because we were not good, but because there were around 141 groups there who are equally as good as our group.”
Aside from the competition, JTF had workshops, auditions, and shows they could attend.
“We attended three workshops that consisted of acting, voice, and dance,” Harper said.
Along with the workshops, Moore and McCraith did an audition that JTF held for a dance organization, ITheatrics.
“ITheatrics is a video filmed in New York City during the summer,” Moore said.”It’s used to educate young performers on how to do specific dance numbers from Broadway Junior Shows.”
600 people auditioned for ITheatrics, and only 261 received callbacks, including Moore and McCraith.
“While they only cast 24 people out of that 261 to be in the video, it is still an incredible opportunity to have,” Moore said.
Harper, McCraith, and Moore all agreed that JTF was an amazing opportunity. The ITheatrics audition was actually Lauren’s favorite part of JTF.
“I had never been to an audition like that, so it was a really fun learning experience,” McCraith said.
Moore’s favorite part was the New Works Showcase. The showcase featured 15-minute previews of new and upcoming Broadway Jr. shows. This year, they got to see Trolls Jr., How to Train Your Dragon Jr., and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
“It was so much fun getting to see kids that were just like us, get to go up on the stage and perform these amazing shows,” said Moore.
For Harper, her favorite part of JTF was meeting other people who loved theater as much as she did.
“I felt like I could be whoever I wanted to be without judgment,” said Harper. “Even when performing in front of hundreds of people, I felt no nerves whatsoever because of how supportive everyone was.”
