A standing ovation and lifelong memories

Jacqueline Touchet, an eighth grader at Pershing Middle School, participated in the Junior Theater Festival.

This year, I had the opportunity to participate in the Junior Theater Festival, a musical-theater competition that hosts youth-theater groups from around the world who compete, take classes and watch young-professional performances. Each group performs a selection from Broadway Junior or Kids Collection musicals, which have music written for young voices.

I participated with Theatre Under The Stars’ Humphreys School of Musical Theatre. Although it was a lot of work, it was one of the most enriching experiences of my life. As students, we not only prepared our selection for the competition, but we had the honor to showcase a few numbers from the show The Lion King JR. in front of 5,000 people.

The rehearsal process started in early October, and we rehearsed every Friday night and many Saturdays from that time until the competition, which was in mid-January. We prepared three songs and a few scenes from High School Musical 2 JR. for the competition part of the festival, and did the same for The Lion King JR. showcase.

After our intense rehearsal process, it came time for the festival in Atlanta, Georgia. At the adjudication, we performed our pieces from High School Musical 2 JR. and got rave reviews from the judges. That afternoon we took three different master classes – one acting, one singing and one dancing.

Saturday night was the showcase. Only four groups out of the hundreds of groups participating were selected to perform, so we were very grateful to be one of the invited groups. There was also a celebrity performance by Darren Criss, who plays Blaine on the TV show Glee. Our performance was received with a standing ovation. We already felt that all of our hard work paid off, but the way the audience of our peers received us really meant a lot to us.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget. I am so grateful to our choreographer, director and musical director, Shay Rodgers, Rozie Curtis and Jo Ellen Hubert. Also, it was inspiring to work with our award-winning student choreographer, Matthew Smith, and student director, Dylan Lambert.

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