Broadway Junior

Mar 30, 2017 / Blog

Broadway Junior at Blumenthal is coming up April 3-5, 2017. 

The Broadway Junior Theater Celebration offers an enthusiastic, educational environment for students and teachers to interact with hundreds of others who share their passion for musical theatre. Created and directed by iTheatrics, a premiere creative consultant in educational musical theatre based in New York City, in association with the leading theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI) and the Blumenthal Performing Arts' Education Department. Our Broadway Junior program is designed for area elementary and middle school students!

Frank Casstevens, Arts Coordinator at Benton Heights Elementary School of the Arts in Monroe, has been teaching for 31 years. At a donor luncheon in early February this year, Casstevens shared a story about a 4th grade student.

"A few years ago, a 4th grade student became frustrated in his classroom and ask to speak with a counselor. As he headed toward her office, he stopped in the auditorium instead and sat on the floor in the middle of our stage. When the counselor realized he should have arrived, she searched immediately and found him seated on the stage. When ask why he was there, he told her that the stage and drama club was the only place in his life where he felt safe, where he felt loved. On stage, he could be someone who mattered, he felt successful and he liked himself. His life had a reason. Later that year upon arriving to perform in Broadway Jr. at the Knight Theater, he was spot on."

Casstevens explains why he does the work he does. 

"I have been asked many times why I have chosen to spend my entire professional career in a Title 1, high poverty, Inner city school where there are large language barriers that often make our goals seem insurmountable," says Casstevens. "My response is always the same, there is so much to offer these students who are hungry for the creative arts to help them fulfill their dreams." 

He concludes with why Broadway Junior is important.

"The stage is ours with the chance to fill it with students who will be our leaders in the arts and all sectors of our society in the near future is front and center." 

For more information about Broadway Junior, click here. Monday April 3, make sure to follow Blumenthal Arts on Instagram (@blumenthalarts) here to go behind-the-scenes at day 1 of Broadway Junior!