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<\/p>\nIn mid-May, Fort Myers Theatre took a competition team to England to compete in Junior Theatre Festival Europe. In Artistic Director Michelle Kuntze\u2019s estimation, trips to the Junior Theatre Festival Europe competition in England have huge benefits. This year\u2019s festival was no exception.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only did we perform with over 2,000 kids from all over the world. we also went and took workshops on the West End \u2026 with the \u2018Hadestown\u2019 cast members and \u2018Hercules\u2019 cast members.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s trip was special for another reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had the honor of being selected to perform at the closing ceremonies,\u201d Kuntze reported. \u201cBeing chosen to perform at the closing is one thing, but being the final act at the closing is really remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n
That meant that the team had the privilege of performing in front of 2,000 theater kids from all over the world.<\/p>\n
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall <\/p>\n
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall <\/p>\n
Fort Myers Theatre was the first troupe to perform numbers from ‘Newsies’ in Europe. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the only ones from the United States,\u201d said Kuntze. \u201cAnd we were the first ones ever to perform \u2018Newsies Jr.\u2019 in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was one other accolade that really thrilled Kuntze and her team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got complimented on our amazing American accents,\u201d she added with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers Theatre is on a roll. Next month it is opening a new dinner theater on Crystal Drive in the former home of Ter-Tinis Lounge.<\/p>\n
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Courtesy of Fort Myers Theatre<\/p>\n
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Fort Myers Theatre <\/p>\n
Fort Myers Theatre co-founder and Artistic Director Michelle Kuntze <\/p>\n
MORE INFORMATION:<\/p>\n
When she got the call, Kuntze initially thought one of her kids got into trouble.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe director of the Junior Theatre Festival called us up and he said he needed to talk to us urgently,\u201d Kuntze recounted. \u201cWe were at lunch and I actually thought one of my students was in trouble. So [my husband] Jeremy and I ran the couple blocks from our restaurant and ran in and just said, \u2018Well, what’s going on?\u2019 They’re like, \u2018Oh, you’ve been selected to perform at our closing ceremonies and you’re going to be performing last. I almost cried. It was just a really great feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall <\/p>\n
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WGCU Arts Reporter Tom Hall <\/p>\n
Fort Myers Theatre’s JTF competition team was complimented for their ‘amazing American accents.’ <\/p>\n
It was a sentiment shared by her \u2018Newsies\u2019 cast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I told our students, the energy in the room was unbelievable,\u201d Kuntze continued.
As a result, the cast was able work with West End theater professionals onstage at a hastily convened dress rehearsal.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust walking backstage and getting ready, seeing the lights come on and hearing the announcer say, \u2018The final performance is by Fort Myers Theatre from the United States of America,\u2019 was incredible. I can’t even describe the energy in the room when you have thousands of kids cheering for your students. It was just a really great feeling for all the hard work that we put into it. And then we ran onstage and they did a great job. I mean, they really did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Produced by Music Theatre International in partnership with iTheatrics from New York, Junior Theatre Festival Europe is Europe\u2019s largest celebration of musical theater for young people.<\/p>\n
For more, read\/hear:<\/p>\n
Support for WGCU\u2019s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In mid-May, Fort Myers Theatre took a competition team to England to compete in Junior Theatre Festival Europe.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-308053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}