Murray’s Bay Primary School in New Zealand will be given a helping hand from Music Theatre International (MTI), Australasia, as the proud recipients of a free school musical production to be staged in 2018.

MTI Australasia, in partnership with AMICI Trust, Musical Theatre New Zealand and Junior Theatre New Zealand, presented the second annual “A Helping Hand: Free Musical Giveaway” at the Junior Theatre Celebration New Zealand (JTC NZ) in Auckland.

Murray’s Bay Primary School is one of many schools in the region without a full-time arts program who were eligible to apply and were successfully selected. As part of their prize, school representatives Leon Jacobs, Lisa Wilson (pictured, centre left) and Theresa Wells (pictured, centre right), were invited to attend the JTC NZ adjudication sessions and participate in Professional Development workshops.

A Helping Hand provides the school with a free Broadway Junior™ Showkit™, which includes such resources as a full director's guide, piano score, full professionally recorded music backing tracks, student scripts, a production manual: everything the school will need to successfully stage their first ever musical theatre production.

Additionally, MTI Australasia will provide them with full support throughout the production process, including interaction with Melbourne-based Stuart Hendricks, Managing Director (pictured, far left) and ongoing support from this year’s program mentor: Auckland-based Broadway Junior specialist, Emma Bishop (pictured, far right).

Bishop has spent the last 15 years as a full-time educator and is currently the President of Drama NZ, the National Subject Association for Drama in Education. She has been an active member of the Music Theatre scene in New Zealand and is currently the Zone One Representative for Musical Theatre New Zealand.

In 2016 Ngati Toa School in Wellington were the first school selected as recipients of A Helping Hand. Under the passionate mentorship of Robert Dill, the school staged DISNEY’S THE JUNGLE BOOK KIDS as their first foray into the world of Broadway Junior™.

For more information visit: www.nztheatrics.org.nz