MARION-Students from Artstarts Company in Marion won a Freddie G Award for Excellence in Acting at the 2018 Junior Theater Festival Atlanta last month at Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.
The theater festival united more than 6,000 students and educators from 130 educational musical theater groups representing 30 states, the District of Columbia, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
The Junior Theater Festival Atlanta is the world's largest festival celebrating young people and the transformative power of musical theater. It is produced by the Junior Theater Group in partnership with iTheatrics, a leading educational theater company that creates innovative experiences and products for the public and private sector.
Ranging in age from 6 to 17, students from Artstarts presented selections from "Seussical Jr." for Shay Rodgers, former manager of education and choreographer for Theatre Under the Stars in Houston, and Paul Brewster, managing director for Trusty Sidekick Theater Company and a Disney Theatrical Group teaching artist.
"The Seuss characters leapt off the stage and into our hearts when this ensemble brought us on a heartwarming journey of Horton Hearing the Who's," Brewster said.
DJ McInturff and Ava Barker from Artstarts 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.
Last year, Artstarts brought home a Freddie G Award for Excellence in Acting. In 2014, 2015 and 2016, the group received a Freddie G Award for Excellence in Music.
Artstarts is a Southern Illinois-based, nonprofit, charitable organization devoted to making the arts accessible to all Southern Illinois children. The organization provides opportunities in the arts to a diverse population with the goal of including those who do not now participate in art programs due to cultural or economic barriers.
