Students from the Boothbay Region YMCA Y-Arts group won national awards at the 2017 iTheatrics Junior Theater Festival Atlanta, Jan. 13-15 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, GA.  Y Arts won a Freddie G Award for Outstanding Ensemble. Students Jackie McLoon, Rick Hicscher and Noelle Timberlake won a Freddie G Award for Outstanding Student Director and Choreographer, and student Nathan Salter won a Freddie G Award for Excellent Individual Performance by a Male.

Emerson Harris and  Kayleigh Tolley were two of 142 students who made it to the call-back for future Broadway Junior shoots for “how-to” choreography videos for soon-to-be released Broadway Junior musicals.  The shoots will be taped in New York City this summer. The Broadway Junior scouts were on the lookout for outstanding students, out of 5,800 students at the festival, 500 were invited to audition for iTheatrics resident choreographer Steven G. Kennedy.  The final cast will be determined later this year. These videos will be used in tens of thousands of schools across the country and internationally.

The students presented selections from Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach JR. for composer, director, producer and music director David Weinstein (The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley, Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach) and Kennedy Center director Deirdre Kelly Lavrakas (Walking in the Winds: American Tales and Walking in the Winds: Arabian Tales – a co-production with the Performing Arts Center of Amman, Jordan), who directed two musical theatre reviews for a state department tour of South Asia and has led drama workshops for teachers and students in Bahrain.

Said Deirdre Kelly Lavrakas, “Boothbay Region YMCA ARTS! did an amazing interpretation of James and the Giant Peach JR. with excellent dance, music and acting moments.”

Students Spencer Pottle and Jackie McLoon were named to the Junior Theater Festival All-Stars, made up of outstanding performers attending the festival. The All-Stars performed a song during the closing ceremony for all 6,000 festival attendees.

The Y-Arts students who traveled to the 2017 iTheatrics Junior Theater Festival: Avery Barter, Jacob Bishopp, Jordan Chamness, Phoebe Cook, Ronan Cullina, Aaron Densmore, Emily Densmore, Taylor Fish, Helen Hamblett, Lincoln Hamblett, Emerson Harris, Lilley Harris, Sarah Harris, Ellie Hilscher, Rick Hilscher, Jackie McLoon, Katy Nein, Lily Nein,  Brynna Nelson, Madison Phelps, Spencer Pottle, Trey Tibbetts, Noelle Timberlake, Emma Tolley, Katherine Tolley and Kayleigh Tolley.

Cheering the Y-Arts group and all of the participants were Disney Theatrical President Thomas Schumacher;  Broadway director, choreographer, producer and dancer Jeff Calhoun (Bonnie & Clyde, Newsies); Broadway choreographer, director and performer Christopher Gattelli (South Pacific, Newsies); composer Zina Goldrich & lyricist Marcy Heisler (Junie B. Jones, Dear Edwina); Arielle Jacobs (Wicked, Disney’s Aladdin in Sydney), Curt Hansen (Broadway’s Hairspray!, Wicked national tour), Luca Padovan (Broadway’s School of Rock, Broadway’s Newsies), and New York Times best-selling authors Jodi Picoult (“Small Great Things”) and Mary Pope Osborne (The Magic Treehouse Series) were some of the celebrities at the festival cheering them on.

 Boothbay Region YMCA has enjoyed tremendous success at the Junior Theater Festival in the past. Just last year  Y-Arts won a Freddie G Excellence in Acting award, and student Genevieve Taylor received a Freddie G Outstanding Student Director and Choreographer award; in 2012 the students won a Freddie G Outstanding Achievement in Acting Group Award; in 2011 Junior Theater Festival, students from Boothbay Region YMCA earned a “Freddie G Outstanding Production” award for their production. As one of seven “Freddie G Outstanding Production” winners, the students performed at the closing ceremonies for all 3,000 attendees. 

At the 2010 Junior Theater Festival, Boothbay Region YMCA group again won a "Freddie G Outstanding Production” award, the students were also selected to be one of four educational theater groups from across the country to perform in the New Works Showcase presenting Disney's Aladdin KIDS.  Four Boothbay students – Nate Friant, Kate Friant, Rick Hilscher and Sophia Thayer – were cast in the national choreography DVD for Fame JR.!, which will be used in hundreds of schools  across the country. Boothbay Region YMCA attended the Junior Theater Festival for the first time in January 2009 and earned two major awards: an Outstanding Production award and also an Outstanding Individual: Male award for student Roosevelt Bishop.