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Education at DMR Adventures

Junior Theater Festival (JTF) is the world’s biggest and best celebration of young people performing musical theater.
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FUN!

DMR @JTF TroupE

Dream Team

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The DMR JTF Troupe is a  group of students who are passionate about furthering their skills as actors, singers and dancers and chosen to represent DMR Adventures and Charlottesville, Virginia, in the Junior Theater Festival. The Junior Theater Festival (JTF) is the worldʼs biggest and widely regarded as the best celebration of young people coming together to perform musical theater. JTF brings together student musical theater troupes from all over the world for a weekend of musical theater mayhem and madness. Each troupe performs fifteen minutes from a Broadway Junior show for adjudication by a panel of musical theater experts. The weekend also features workshops, a New Works Showcase featuring new musical adaptations soon to be released and concludes with a grand finale concert headlined by Broadwayʼs best!

IN THE NEWS

The DMR Adventures' JTF Troupe has been recognized for their award at JTF

THE DAILY PROGRESS

CBS 19 NEWS

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The group has enjoyed much success at the Junior Theater Festival in the past.

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At the 2023 Junior Theater Festival, DMR was awarded Freddie G Group Award for Excellence in Acting for their performance of James and the Giant Peach JR.  Students Alanah Richardson and Audrey Gaskin were chosen as Festival All Stars.

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At the 2022 Junior Theater Festival, Freddie G Group Award for Excellence in Ensemble for their performance of Godspell JR. Students Sally Kashatus and Jackson Davis were chosen as Festival All Stars.  Amalie Hendricks and Jackson Davis made it to the call-backs for future shoots for “how-to” choreography videos for soon-to-be released musicals, and Jackson Davis was selected to travel to NYC for filming.

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After traveling with DMR to the 2019 and 2020 Festivals, DMR student Matty Ward was chosen to play the lead character, Charley Maplewood, in The Big One-Oh! JR. Zoomsical Edition, a twenty-minute online adaptation of The Big One-Oh! This remote production was the first of its kind, remotely bringing together a cast of students to workshop and perform a new musical live for audiences all over the world.  Students Ella Watson and Reese Topper were selected to participate in a virtual prAWS

 

At the 2020 Junior Theater Festival, DMR Adventures won a Freddie G Group Award for Excellence in Acting for their performance of Children of Eden. Students Haven Teachman and Justin Parker were chosen as Festival All Stars.  Matty Ward and Soren Corbett made it to the call-backs for future shoots for “how-to” choreography videos for soon-to-be released musicals, and Soren Corbett was selected to travel to NYC. Elizabeth Brubaker won the Playbill Trivia Showdown.

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At the 2019 Junior Theater Festival, DMR Adventures students Madison Chin and Connor Wells were named to the Tech All-Stars, a select group of students who worked side-by-side with seasoned professionals to help run events. Additionally, Connor Wells was one of three students to receive the Sharidan Giles Technical Scholarship Award. DMR Adventures' student Jonah Taylor was selected to sing the National Anthem in front of all 6,600 festival attendees at the 2019 JTF ATL opening ceremonies. Soren Corbett and Miranda Powell were chosen to travel to NYC and perform in iTheatrics DVDs for distribution to theatre teachers and producers across the globe.

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At the 2018 Junior Theater Festival Dylan Stukenberg and Soren Corbett made it to the call-back for future shoots for “how-to” choreography videos for soon-to-be released musicals, and Soren Corbett was ultimately cast and traveled to New York City to perform in the videos. DMR Adventures’ Julianna Buyaki was named to Tech Theater All-Stars.  DMR Adventures’ Justin Parker won a Freddie G award for Excellent Individual Performance by a Male. Students Teagan Bower, Alex Ege, Anais Fogg, Eleanora (Ele) Fogg, Justin Parker, and Dylan Stukenberg were selected to perform “The Rainbow Connection” to composer, performer, and songwriter Paul Williams (Bugsy Malone, “Evergreen,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Rainbow Connection,”) when he received the Junior Theater Festival Legacy Award. Student Katie Wall, was selected to be a JTF intern and helped to run festival events. Also that year DMR Adventures educator Melissa Charles was an exceptional educators from schools and performing arts centers around the country selected for the ninth annual “The Freddie G Fellowship.”

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At the 2017 Junior Theater Festival DMR Adventures won a Freddie G Group Award for Excellence in Acting and DMR Adventures student Kendall Wynn won a Freddie G Inspiration Award, given to a student who touched the hearts of the adjudicators in some way. Additionally, DMR Adventures student Miranda Powell was cast to shoot choreography videos in New York that summer.

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At the 2015 festival, the group was awarded a Freddie G for Excellence in Ensemble Work as well as individual performance awards for Jessica Harris and Landon Duval. 

 

In 2013, when the organization was called Union Street Theatre, the group won an Excellence in Ensemble award for their performance of Once On This Island.

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