Fort Bend Christian Academy Wins Top Award at National Junior Theater Festival

“ASL-Integrated Performance” shines on big stage with audience of 6,000+ attendees

The directors and cast of Fort Bend Christian’s ‘Godspell JR’ company knew they had something special when they boarded their flight to Atlanta on Friday, January 13. It was their first time performing an ASL shadow performance of a musical, not a play. And it was their first time attending the enormous and respected Junior Theater Festival. With all of that in mind, the students and their leaders went into the experience with the mindset that they were going for fun and a good learning experience. They never anticipated that they might bring home the festival’s biggest and most prestigious award. But they did just that.

The Junior Theater Festival was a competition change for FBCA student actors and directors alike this year. Never had the group attended a convention like JTF, with performance, education, and entertainment tracks, and almost 6,500 attendees, The small group of 20 performers (half theater students and half ASL students) eased into the convention, in Atlanta Jan. 13 – 16, with excited energy.

“As first timers at the Junior Theater Festival, our goal was to provide an experience for our students where they could share their passion and talents and create lifelong memories,” FBCA Upper School theatre teacher and Greatwood resident Lana Thompson said. “We never imagined that our students would be recognized for their unique performance and get to share it on the platform they did.  We are beyond proud of our theatre and ASL students, and the hard work behind the outreach we do at FBCA.”

JTF is the world’s largest celebration of young people performing musical theater. With 6,433 attendees across 125 performing groups, it was an exhilarating change for FBCA. Attendees not only performed in front of professional adjudicators and peers, but they also saw presentations from groups like Disney Theatricals, the Tony-award winning duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (The Greatest Showman, La La Land, Dear Evan Hansen), and dozens of Broadway royalty. Even with that impressive and somewhat intimidating lineup, the students’ inspired performance caught the eye of adjudicators. FBCA’s ‘Godspell JR’ cut garnered one of only nine Outstanding Performance Awards.

“We were excited to have an adjudicator with a connection to Deaf culture,” said FBCA Fine Arts Teacher, Sarah Patterson, musical director.  “Jeff Calhoun is a Tony-award winning director/choreographer renowned for Broadway’s ‘Newsies,’ but also for his work with Deaf West Theater, and bringing ‘Big River,’ the first ASL-integrated show to a Broadway stage.”

Along with his co-adjudicator, Shay Rodgers, coincidentally a Houston-based professional director and choreographer, Calhoun was impressed with FBCA’s “powerful storytelling, commitment to correct ASL interpretation/presentation, and unique integration of ASL into a performance.”

“Our students at JTF experienced an unparallel moment to inspire more than 6,000 people with the expressive power of sign language by weaving ASL with musical theatre into a seamless moment,” FBCA Fine Arts Director Robert Sanders said. “We are all so proud of them for being a light and living out what it means to be a city on a hill. This was a moment of a lifetime that we will all remember. I am proud of our directors and students for their growth, risk-taking, and dedication to producing an excellent piece of innovative art.”

As an Outstanding Performance winner, ‘Godspell JR’ was featured on the main stage during the Freddie G Awards ceremony. Performing “Save The People,” the group proved that featuring ASL performers in a musical could be done with precision and beauty.

“JTF taught me just how powerful theatre is and how vital it is that these beautiful stories are accessible to all audiences,” said FBCA Junior Katie Volmert, an ASL student in the ensemble. “Everyone deserves to be able to see themselves represented in a way that is authentic to their story. Performing at the festival was one of the most impactful things I have ever done, and I am endlessly grateful for the directors and cast.”

Fort Bend Christian is not a novice at adding the American Sign Language on-stage translation to their plays. They have performed ASL plays for the local Deaf community for five years. But this is the first time they tried it with a musical, weaving the translation into their song and dance numbers. The students performed their special ‘Godspell JR” in November for Deaf and hearing-impaired audiences in Sugar Land, Texas. (The JTF adjudication performance was a 15-minute cut of the show.)

“I can definitely say that participating in JTF was one of the best experiences of my life,” said FBCA Senior Christabel Eke, a theatre student who portrayed Judas in the show. “Even though our troupe won the outstanding production award with our Godspell performance, which was pretty cool, the most fulfilling part of it all was seeing all the people that we impacted with incorporating sign language into our 15-minute cut.”

Patterson and ASL Director Elyse DeBuck were inspired by the very story of ‘Godspell JR,’ comparing its themes of uniting communities through Jesus’ teachings with that of unity through common language.

“Our goal for attending the festival was to show how ASL and theater can go hand in hand and can produce a beautiful story for both the Deaf and hearing to enjoy. In this show, Jesus’ character uses ASL to bring the English and ASL-speaking tribes together as he teaches biblical parables through creative storytelling,” DeBuck said. “’Shadow’ plays typically involve a speaking actor standing behind and actor performing in ASL, providing the voice of the story while the ASL actor delivers the story in sign language. Our storytelling method was different than ASL-interpreted shows, where often the action plays in a conventional voice on stage with interpreters off to the side translating the show.”

Several FBCA individual students brough home additional awards from the convention. Actors Jack Brown (Jesus) and Matthew Schwab (Jesus’ shadow) were awarded All-Star Cast for their performances, while ASL actor and costume design student Katie Breedlove was awarded Technical All-Star and had the opportunity to work backstage with industry technical professionals at the awards ceremony.

“I am beyond thrilled that we were given the opportunity to showcase the beauty and expressiveness of ASL and to bring a new perspective to the musical ‘Godspell,’” said Junior ASL student Matthew Schwab. “Winning Outstanding Production and All-Star at JTF was a powerful reminder that through the arts, we can break down barriers between the Deaf and hearing communities and create a more inclusive and equitable world.”

“It was not only a moment of pride and achievement for our team, but also a call to action to continue the work of promoting inclusivity and accessibility in the theater industry. This win is a true testament of the power theater has to bring people together.”

Fort Bend Christian Academy in Sugar Land, Texas is a Pre-K-12 private institution. For more information about FBCA, visit www.fortbendchristian.org.