Junior Theatre Festival Australia 2024
This year Western Theatrics attended the Junior Theatre Festival (JTF) Australia as the first non for profit theatre company from Western Australia to do so. With help from Travel Gang a specialised performing arts tour provider we took a group of 28 children and 21 Adults and gave them the opportunity to be imersed in the musical theatre world by attending workshops presented by professional industry artists from around the world, watching performances, making connections with other musical theatre groups from around Australia and of course performing their 15min snippet of Legally Blonde Jr for adjucation and for the other attendees.
DAY 1
In Sydney the children participated in workshops at NIDA. Hard work and learning were done during the day with the older children studying Stanislavski techniques whilst the younger children focused on Labans theory of movement and character work, but fun was also had that night when the group went and saw Hamilton at the Sydney Lyric Theatre where they also got the opportunity to get autographs and talk to Jason Arrow (Hamilton), Vidya Makan (Eliza), Tainga Savage (Phillip/John Laurens) and Callan Purcell (Aaron Burr).
Day 2
Thursday the group travelled to Newcastle stopping along they way at the Murrock Cultural Centre for an Aboriginal Culture experience and Quad Biking. After reaching Newcastle it was time for dinner and an early night before a big day of Theatre.
Day 3
Friday morning the children got in some last minute rehearsal time before the Festival kicked off in the afternoon. The group got to watch the pilot presentation of two new JR. shows; The Prince Of Egypt JR and Once Upon a One More TIme JR with both parents and children asking when Western Theatrics will be doing the shows! Between performances the children participated in a dance workshop and Ash Brady, Jocelyn Dale, Lizzie Clarke-Martin and Peregrine Carr competed in the Tech Olympic heats.
Day 4
Saturday Morning was all about adjudication and the group looked “whipped into shape” in their matching shirts designed by Ellissa Murday. They delivered a comendable performance for the adjudicators and recieved positive feedback about their energy and character portrayal, specific praise was made for Pace Baudains diction in his role as Callahan. The adjudicators also provided the group with constructive insights on vocal phrasing and character engagement. After adjudication the children participated in acting and music workshops and 7 of the children audtioned for their spot with the Aussie All-Stars*. In the evening the group enjoyed Outstanding Group Performances, the Awards ceremony where they recieved a trophy for Best Choreography for Legally Blond JR and the final of the Tech Olympics where they came away with the win!
Learning is not just for the children a few of the adults also had the oportunity to attend several workshops including; Directing Intimacy, Supporting Young Performers, Empowering Neurodiversity and Harmonies and Talking Tech. These workshops will enable Western Theatrics to continue creating safe, educational and fun learning environments for future productions.
*Participating in JTF offers the children a chance at being nominated to audition for one of 40 spots availiable to participate in the Aussie All Stars. This year 7 of our group auditioned for one of those prestigious spots, if selected they will have the opportunity to travel to America in 2026 where they will be exposed to auditions, Broadway performers, Broadway shows and a week-long rehearsal intensive where they will learn the choreography and music to a Broadway JR. title which will then be presented in Atlanta at the Junior Theatre Festival where there will be more than 6000 musical theatre lovers from all over the world.
