TGS Broadway Squad

This year saw the development of the inaugural Broadway Squad: a junior musical theatre group for our TGS Year 9 -10 students and in the spirit of community it was also opened up to Belmont Intermediate School students in Years 7 -8. Under the direction of Musical Theatre teacher, Mr Robert Dil, and supported by an incredible team of Y12 and 13 Musical Theatre students serving as Mentors, this group of 65+ was held weekly on Thursday afternoons.

Broadway Squad represented the school at the first-ever Junior Theatre Celebration Day NZ at the Aotea Centre, sponsored by some of the biggest names in Theatre Education for Australasia and were able to do workshops and gain feedback from the top four members of New York’s iTheatrics. They not only presented a 10-minute competition piece from their annual production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast JR they also premiered the Australasian premier performance of Madagascar JR –a new title in the Broadway Junior collection of shows for young performers, to great acclaim.

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast JR was the culminating performance of the year for the Squad, presented over two different nights to the public in November with different students taking leading roles each night. The goal of Broadway Squad is the development of a sustainable musical theatre programme for young people in Years 7 -10 and this year has been a great success!