Carson City's Wild Horse Children's Theater Troupe wins national prize
Students from Wild Horse Children's Theater in Carson City won a Freddie G Award for Excellence in Dance and earned other recognition at the 2022 Junior Theater Festival West held in Sacramento on February 18-20 at the Wells Fargo Pavilion and the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center.
The Junior Theater Festival West saw over 1,500 students and educators from educational musical theater groups across the world.
The Wild Horse Children's Theater students presented selections from Oliver, Jr. for Broadway Choreographer Steven G. Kennedy, senior education consultant at iTheatrics. Cindy Ripley, and musical theater director, Khalia Davis.
Davis said, “Wild Horse Children’s Theater used strong dynamics and vocal variety that kept us on the edge of our seats the whole time and made incredible choices through movement, character, and voice.” Kennedy added, “WHCT’s production of Oliver, Jr. was simply beautiful. It is clear this program shines in teaching young performers to beautifully tell a story through dance, music and acting.”
Wild Horse Children's Theater’s Kai Moore and Sydney McGruder were named to the Junior Theater Festival All-Stars, made up of outstanding performers attending the festival. The Wild Horse Technical Team of Phoenix Burke, Laura Bennett, Chastity Ward and Darby Kelleher took the first-place prize in Tech Olympics.
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, the Junior Theater Festival West and its sister festival, the Junior Theater Festival Atlanta, are the world’s largest festival celebrating young people and the transformative power of musical theater.
Wild Horse Children’s Theater is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization formed to enhance and enrich the community through performing arts classes, high-quality live theater, outreach programs in local elementary and middle schools, and other educational programs in the theatrical arts. Its mission is to train and educate today’s youth through theater arts to achieve high artistic and personal goals, and to inspire them to become exemplary artists, patrons and citizens of tomorrow.