The Smoke Rise Academy of Arts was proud to take a team of 35 drama students to the annual Junior Theater Festival in January. The festival is the world’s largest theater festival for students and is hosted in Atlanta at the Cobb Galleria. It is sponsored by Playbill, Disney Musicals and Music Theater International.
The first Junior Theater Festival in 2003 was designed to see if educators and students would enjoy three days of a non-stop musical theatre celebration – and, after the first JTF Atlanta, the answer was an enthusiastic “yes!”
This year, JTF Atlanta brought in over 7,000 students from all over the world to perform, watch, meet Broadway stars, and learn from some of the best in the business.
Greyson Chadwick, one of our theater and dance instructors, auditions students and puts together a team of dedicated, hardworking students who love musical theatre. They prepare 15 minutes from a Broadway Junior musical for adjudication by professional actors, directors, choreographers, and educators. This year, our team presented a clip from Roald Dahl’s Matilda, Jr. We were thrilled to learn that one of our judges, Lotte Wakeham had been associate director for the Royal Shakespeare’s production of Matilda at the West End for a decade!
The 160-plus teams were divided into pods where they performed for each other and received scoring and feedback from three judges. In this process, the judges selected the team they felt was the best in their pod. This team was then awarded “All Festival Performance Group” and “Excellence in Pod” and was invited to perform one song from their selection on the big stage before the entire 7,000-plus festival attendees. Smoke Rise Academy is proud to announce that our team was selected BEST IN POD! This was our third year earning this honor along with the distinction of being asked to perform a new work in 2023, Finding Nemo, Jr by Disney and earning “Excellence in Music” and “Excellence in Dance” trophies! Our trophy collection needs a case so the whole church can see our accomplishments and awards!
– Denise Burcham, Academy of Arts Director
What our adjudicators had to say about SRAA JTF team performance of Matilda, JR.
This presentation was exceptional. I was floored by the level of nuance and difficulty in the dancing and acting. It was Broadway caliber storytelling. The strength of their program lies in the absolute full commitment they get from these talented young artists. The execution of very challenging staging was phenomenal. I loved how they worked so well together over a variety of ages.
– Rob Rokicki, Broadway composer & educator. The Lightning thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, Monstersongs
As the original Associate Director of Matilda the Musical in the West End and on Broadway, I was blown away by this group. Their commitment, energy and talent was exceptional. I was incredibly impressed by their extraordinarily inventive staging and choreography. They showcased a very strong range of skills including acting, singing, dance, acrobatics and wonderful teamwork. Bravo! This is clearly an outstanding theatre program and the staff should be highly commended for their work with these students. I was hugely impressed to see so many exciting and inventive creative choices, and I look forward to hearing about what they do next.
– Lotte Wakeham, Lotte Wakeham is the Artistic Director of the Octagon Theatre (UK) & was Associate Director of Matilda the Musical in the West End and on Broadway
Wow! The athleticism of these kids was incredible to watch. Singing, dancing, acting, lifts. They had 15 minutes jampacked with energy and storytelling. Smoke rise never seems to fail in being able to create an entire world built out of students. This takes so much trust! They have to have a strong program in order to pull this off.
– Shay Rodgers, Choreographer for iTheatrics choreography videos
Adjudication Video of Matilda, JR
Festival Performance
