Junior Theatre Celebration Australia
Soon - depending on whether your idea of hell or heaven is hundreds of kids performing musical theatre - the Aotea Centre in Auckland will either be an incredibly joyous place to be, or the place to wear frequency muffling headphones.
It’s the first time a Junior Theatre Celebration will be held in New Zealand. It’s being put on by Amici Trust, Musical Theatre International, and iTheatrics - which creates adaptations of Broadway musicals that can be performed by students. iTheatrics adaptations include many, many Disney musicals as well as Annie, Fame, Bugsy Malone, Godspell, Hairspray, James and the Giant Peach, Legally Blonde, Fiddler on The Roof, and the Dr. Seuss Musical – Seussical.
Eva Radich talks to Timothy Allen McDonald who as well as being the Founder and CEO of iTheatrics is a librettist in his own right, and Stuart Hendricks the Managing Director of Musical Theatre International Australasia – the company which commissions iTheatrics adaptations - and is helping run the Junior Theatre Celebration.