It is Theatre Development Fund’s belief that future audiences are built by engaging students, first-hand, in the vital and exciting activity of the creative process, as well as providing opportunities to see live performances of great theatre. To that end, 1,000 New York City high school students from Manhattan, Brooklyn, and The Bronx who are participating in TDF’s Stage Doors Program will be attending the new Broadway musical, In the Heights on Wednesday, March 12 at 2pm at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
“We’re thrilled to have the entire theatre for our students,” said TDF Education Director, Marianna Houston. “TDF brought over 800 Stage Doors students to the Off Broadway production of the show last year and the teenagers found it thrilling and inspiring. Many of the students attending In the Heights this week have never been to a live theatre production and it will be the perfect introduction for them.”
In the Heights, which opened on Sunday, March 9, is about a vibrant and tight-knit community at the top of the island of Manhattan. The music pulses with the hopes and dreams of three generations as they struggle to forge an identity in a neighborhood on the brink of transition. With music and lyrics by ASCAP’s 2007 Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, a book by Pulitzer Prize finalist Quiara Alegría Hudes and conceived by Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights is directed by Joseph A. Callaway Award-winner Thomas Kail and choreographed by Outer Critics’ Circle, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel and Joseph A. Callaway Award-winner Andy Blankenbuehler. Alex Lacamoire is music director and music arrangements are by Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman. In the Heights features a scenic design by Anna Louizos, costumes by Paul Tazewell, lighting by Howell Binkley and sound by Acme Sound Partners.
The 1,000 students who will see In the Heights through TDF’s Stage Doors Program are from the Manhattan schools: Essex Street Academy, George Jackson Academy, Independence High School, Norman Thomas High School, Lower East Side Prep, and Stuyvesant High School; the Brooklyn schools: FDR High School and William E. Grady High School; and the Bronx schools: Bronx Center for Sciences and Mathematics, Bronx Dance Academy, Bronx Health Sciences High School, Bronx Leadership Academy, CUNY Prep Transitional High School, DeWitt Clinton High School, Marble Hill High School and Monroe Campus High School.
TDF’s Stage Doors is a project-based arts education program that provides middle and high school students with a meaningful introduction to live theatre. Each participating class attends a Broadway or Off Broadway performance and participates in eight in-class workshops: four workshops conducted by a TDF teaching artist and the other four conducted by the classroom teacher. The workshops engage students in discussion, writing, reading and improvisation to prepare them for their experience at the theatre. This program is offered at no cost to the school or students. Over 40,000 students have been through TDF’s Stage Doors.
For more about TDF’s Arts Education programs to go: www.tdf.org or about In The Heights at their official Web site: www.intheheightsthemusical.com
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