AUBURN, N.Y. (May 19, 2016) --The Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival has announced the launch of its newest educational series, Festival 360°. This new program will provide participants with exclusive learning opportunities and unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to the world of the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival and Merry-Go-Round Playhouse.
Festival 360° experiences are tailored for three individual 2016 season shows including Oklahoma! on June 11, Crazy For You on Aug. 6, and Treasure Island on Aug. 20. Each Festival 360° experience will offer students the chance to interact and engage with working theatre artists from the shows.
“We are thrilled about this new series,” says Lisa Myers, Artistic Director of Youth Theatre. “We can’t wait to pull back the curtain at the Festival and to allow participants to not just watch a musical at the Playhouse, but to experience it from every angle. There is so much that goes into putting on a professional production here that most never get to experience. Now, in our Festival 360° Series, they can.”
Intended for students ages ten and up, each Festival 360° experience will begin at 10 A.M. at the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival’s administrative offices. The students will then be immersed in both technical and creative aspects of a musical: music, choreography, sets, costumes, and more. Each day will also include backstage tours, question and answer sessions with production and creative staff, and a VIP lunch with cast members. The Festival 360° Experiences conclude with a viewing of the corresponding Festival show at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse.
Registration is $70 for each full-day Festival 360° experience, but a 5% discount is available for students registering for all three days. Registration includes a full day of educational activities available only to Festival 360° students, dinner at Green Shutters Restaurant, a unique Festival 360° t-shirt for each experience, and one ticket to the 8pm performance of the musical highlighted in the experience. Up to two additional tickets for the included performance are available at a discounted rate of $36. For those wishing to watch but not participate, Observer Passes are available for $20. This does not include dinner or a ticket to the show; however tickets can be purchased at the discounted rate of $36. Space is limited, so early registration is strongly encouraged. Registration deadlines are as follows: Oklahoma!: May 27, Crazy For You: July 22, Treasure Island: Aug. 5.
Registration forms are available at FingerLakesMTF.com/festival360. Questions and registrations forms can be emailed to MGRClasses@merry-go-round.com or sent via mail to Festival 360°, 17 William St. 2nd Floor, Auburn, NY 13021.
About Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival:
The Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival will once again operate on three stages in the picturesque Finger Lakes region of Central New York. The Callahan Theater at Nazareth Arts Center, a new venue added this year in Rochester, N.Y., will host the regional premiere of Austen’s Pride: A New Musical of Pride and Prejudice. In Auburn, at its flagship venue, the Preston H. Thomas Theatre in the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, the Festival will present Oklahoma!, the U.S. premiere of Tim Rice’s new musical, From Here to Eternity, Crazy for You, the regional premiere of Treasure Island: A New Musical, Million Dollar Quartet, the regional premiere of Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical, and Smokey Joe’s Café. And, celebrating its fifth anniversary, sponsored by Generations Bank, the new-works series The PiTCH returns with seven new writing teams presenting their new musicals in development. The PiTCH will run from June 16 – July 30 at Theater Mack in Auburn, N.Y.
Four hours from New York City and situated between Syracuse, Rochester and Ithaca, the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival is the largest producing musical theatre organization in New York state, outside of New York City. It has provided over forty years of top-notch entertainment to over 68,000 patrons each season and is routinely recognized by industry press for its artistry and execution.
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