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User:ITheatrics

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iTheatrics is a leading arts company in the educational musical theater market, located in New York City. Under the leadership of founder and CEO, Timothy Allen McDonald, iTheatrics works to ensure kids everywhere experience the transformative power of musical theater through the following means:

  • By adapting Broadway musicals for performance by elementary, middle and high school students.
  • By creating study guides and innovative educational programs for Broadway shows.
  • By creating new musicals for family audiences like: The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley, Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka, The Ant and the Elephant and Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter.
  • By constantly researching and developing the absolute best practices that allow educators to create successful, cost-effective and sustainable musical theater programs.

iTheatrics has worked with a number of distinguished clients including The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the Jim Henson Company, Music Theatre International (MTI), Disney Theatricals, Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc., Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, MacMillan/McGraw-Hill publishing, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the New York City Department of Education.

MTI (Musical Theatre International)

In 1997, Timothy Allen McDonald was recruited by MTI CEO, Freddie Gershon to create and develop the first educational division in a major musical theater licensing firm. Tim worked with authors to create “MTI’s Broadway Junior titles” for middle school performers. Broadway Junior musicals are 60-minute versions of classic shows, adapted to fit the vocal ranges of student performers. Each Broadway Junior title consists of a “ShowKit” of corresponding materials making it possible for any educator to successfully launch an all-school musical. Each ShowKit includes material that is specific to each show including: a Director’s Guide, a Piano/Vocal Score, Actor’s Scripts, a Rehearsal CD, an Accompaniment CD, a Media Disc and a Choreography DVD. In 1995, MTI selected teacher Cindy Ripley (now the lead educational consultant for iTheatrics) to pilot a production of Annie JR., the first-ever title for MTI’s new theater for schools division.

For ten years after, Tim and his team have worked with theatrical greats including Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Schwartz and Sheldon Harnick to create age-appropriate versions of classic musicals such as Annie, Meredith Willson’s The Music Man and Into the Woods for students to perform, along with corresponding educational materials. MTI Education expanded its division to include “School Edition” musicals and materials for high school students including a high school edition of Les Misérables. Tim and his team went on to create other School Edition titles for musicals including Aida, Ragtime and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Tim and his team, also partnered with Disney Theatricals to adapt several Disney movies including Aladdin, 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, Cinderella and Mulan – for the stage, virtually creating the “direct to licensing” musical theater market.  The company began developing 30 minutes shows for the elementary school market.

MTI Education formed an innovative partnership with the MacMillan/McGraw-Hill Company which allowed musical theater, usually an after-school activity, to become part of the core curriculum.  The MacMillan/McGraw-Hill “Spotlight on Music” textbook included “bite size” Broadway musicals and performance rights and accompanying resources allowing students at more than 60,000 schools nation-wide to perform shows in schools.

iTheatrics

In 2006, Timothy Allen McDonald formed iTheatrics which now continues to work with MTI, Disney Theatrical Productions, Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc., the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, and Samuel French in the adaptation of shows for educational markets, and the creation, design and layout of theater resources for teachers. iTheatrics has created the following beloved educational titles:

MTI Broadway Junior Collection

Disney Theatricals:

  • Aida School Edition
  • Disney’s 101 Dalmation KIDS
  • Disney’s Aladdin Dual Language Edition
  • Disney’s Aladdin JR.
  • Disney’s Aladdin KIDS
  • Disney’s Alice in Wonderland JR.
  • Disney’s The Aristocrats KIDS
  • Disney’s Cinderella KIDS
  • Disney’s Beauty and the Beast JR.
  • Disney’s High School Musical JR.
  • Disney’s High School Musical 2 JR.
  • Disney’s The Jungle Book KIDS
  • Disney’s The Little Mermaid JR.
  • Disney’s The Lion King JR.
  • Disney’s The Lion King KIDS
  • Disney’s Mulan JR.
  • Disney’s My Son Pinocchio JR.
  • Disney’s Peter Pan JR.
  • Disney’s Sleeping Beauty KIDS
  • Disney’s Winnie the Pooh KIDS

JR. Titles:

  • Annie JR.
  • Bugsy Malone JR.
  • Captain Louie JR.
  • Dear Edwina JR.
  • Doctor Dolittle JR.
  • Elf JR.
  • Fame JR.
  • Fiddler On The Roof JR.
  • Finian’s Rainbow JR.
  • Godspell JR.
  • Guys And Dolls JR.
  • Hairspray JR.
  • Honk! JR.
  • Into The Woods JR.
  • James and the Giant Peach JR.
  • Legally Blonde JR.
  • The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley JR.
  • The Music Man JR.
  • Once On This Island JR.
  • The Phantom Tollbooth JR.
  • The Pirates of Penzance JR.
  • Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka JR.
  • Schoolhouse Rock Live! JR.
  • Seussical JR.
  • Shrek The Musical JR.
  • Singin’ in the Rain JR.
  • Thoroughly Modern Millie JR.
  • Xanadu JR.

KIDS Titles:

  • Annie KIDS
  • Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark KIDS
  • Magic Tree House: The Knight at Dawn KIDS
  • The Music Man KIDS
  • Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka KIDS
  • A Year With Frog And Toad KIDS

School Edition Titles:

  • Aida School Edition
  • Avenue Q School Edition
  • Les Miserables School Edition
  • Miss Saigon School Edition
  • Ragtime School Edition
  • Rent School Edition
  • Sweeney Todd School Edition

Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc.

Young Performers’ Edition:

  • Anything Goes Young Performers’ Edition
  • Bye Bye Birdie Young Performers’ Edition
  • Crazy for You Young Performer’s Edition
  • The Wizard of Oz Young Performers’ Edition  

Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization

Getting to Know Collection:

  • The Sound of Music
  • Oklahoma!
  • Once Upon a Mattress

The MacMillan/McGraw-Hill Education

Spotlight on Music textbooks

  • Pre-K
  • Grade K
  • Grade 1
  • Grade 2
  • Grade 3
  • Grade 4
  • Grade 5
  • Grade 6
  • Grade 7
  • Grade 8

Broadway Study Guides

  • Aida
  • Cinderella
  • Finian’s Rainbow
  • Little House On The Prairie
  • Memphis
  • The Miracle Worker
  • Motown The Musical
  • Tom Sawyer
  • White Christmas

Programs

Junior Theater Festival

iTheatrics works with the Junior Theater Project  in hosting the annual Junior Theater Festival, the largest international festival dedicated to groups who present musicals with elementary and middle school aged performers. At the festival, groups perform a selection from a Broadway JR. or KIDS Collection musical and are adjudicated by industry professionals. Teachers and students can attend various workshops ranging from acting to technical theater, led by some of the best experts in the field. The Junior Theater Festival brings together people from all aspects of theatre, ranging from students and teachers to Broadway professionals, under one roof to celebrate outstanding student musical theater productions. Past celebrity guests have included Zac Efron, the cast of NBC’s “Smash”, Skylar Astin, Alan Menken, the cast of Broadway’s Disney’s “Newsies”, and various other Broadway and television stars.

Junior Theater Academy

iTheatrics invites students from across the country to workshop shows in New York City. These students known as “Junior Theater All-Stars” are asked to participate and perform in a show that is in development for future publication. The students rehearse a newly adapted script, culminating in a workshop presentation at the end of the rehearsal period for the show’s authors and invited guests. After the presentation, iTheatrics goes back to work, fine tuning the script and preparing it for the adaptation and publishing process.

Junior Teaching Intensives

Each year, iTheatrics conducts weekend long professional development experiences focused on building the essential skills a teacher needs to produce an all school musical. Originally in association with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the iTheatrics’ Junior Teaching intensives are led by the people who helped create the Broadway Junior Collection at Music Theatre International. Workshops are held in both New York City and in other performing arts centers selected annually. An Advanced and a Master’s Junior Teaching Intensive are held in New York City.

Broadway Junior Celebration

The Broadway Junior Celebration, created and directed by iTheatrics, is a celebration of musical theater where school groups are given the opportunity to perform a selection of a musical before a distinguished panel of theatre professionals who will provide them with valuable feedback. In addition, groups participate in interactive workshops for students and professional development opportunities for teachers. The Broadway Junior Theater Celebration brings together people from all aspects of theatre – ranging from students and teachers to professionals who work on Broadway – under one roof to celebrate outstanding student musical theatre productions. Currently, the celebrations are held with the Blumenthal Performing Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina (original), New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark, New Jersey, Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, New York, and the University of Utah, Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program in Salt Lake City, Utah. 

External Links

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