Mill Creek Middle Students Win Big at Junior Theater Festival

Published February 7, 2023

Students in the Mill Creek Middle theater program traveled to Atlanta and returned with new awards and accomplishments.

MCMS theater director Aly Isom and her students competed at the Junior Theater Festival (JTF) January 13-15. JTF brings together student musical theater troupes from all over the world for a weekend of workshops, performances and more. At the festival, groups performed a short selection from a junior Broadway musical for adjudication by a panel of musical theater experts. Mill Creek Middle's performance earned them two All-Star Actor awards, one All-Star Technical award and the Excellence in Music Award.

"The students felt this was an amazing experience," said Isom. "Our adjudicator Cindy Ripley gave us the most amazing compliment: 'Mill Creek Musical Theater's cast took the audience on a fantastic journey with incredible skills of theater craft. This ensemble understands the importance of teamwork, discipline and the joy of working hard toward a goal.' This in and of itself lets me know as a director we are building a magical place at Mill Creek."

MCMS students Will Brown and Brady Clark were named All-Star Actors for their performances. Their classmate Christine Uhde was named All-Star Technical for her work.

"This was the majority of our students' first time at JTF," Isom said. "Our students show us an amazing work ethic in learning their roles, vocal parts and choreography. This makes them stand out. They have perfected it and allowed us to raise the bar in musical theater education. They cannot wait to be able to attend next year."