The Lena Horne Theatre welcomed 1,000 high school students for the March 30 matinee performance Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss' SIX. The Broadway show partnered with TDF for its Introduction to Theatre Program to present the special performance, which, for many of the students from 12 local public high schools, was their first Broadway show.
“We are dedicated to making theatre accessible and relevant to students and their teachers, and welcome them as new and future audience members," said TDF’s Director of School Programs Ginger Bartkoski Meagher in a statement. Meagher continued, "All hail theatre and its mighty transformational qualities. We will be cheering from our seats and dreaming from our classrooms.”
SIX producer Kevin McCollum also said in a statement, "SIX encourages everyone to find their voice, tell their story and live their best lives. SIX sprang from the minds of a group of college students eager to create art that spoke to their friends and community, and we are thrilled to bring the joy of SIX to an entire house filled with students, many of whom will be seeing their first Broadway show.”
Schools that participated in the event include Brooklyn High School for Law and Technology, Brooklyn's HSSL@ Erasmus, Brooklyn's Juan Morel Campos School, Brooklyn's Lyons Community School, Brooklyn's Millennium Brooklyn High School, Manhattan's Harvey Milk High School, Manhattan's High School of Fashion Industries, Manhattan's The Beacon School, Manhattan's The Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem, Queens' Francis Lewis High School, Queens' Urban Assembly Media High School, and New Jersey's North Plainfield High School.
The Tudor pop musical tells the stories of the six Renaissance women who all married England's King Henry VIII. The cast currently stars Hailee Kaleem Wright as Catherine of Aragon, Leandra Ellis-Gaston as Anne Boleyn, Bella Coppola as Jane Seymour, Nasia Thomas as Anna of Cleves, Zoe Jensen as Katherine Howard, and Taylor Iman Jones as Catherine Parr. Alternates include Marilyn Caserta, Kristina Leopold, Aubrey Matalon, Ayla Ciccone-Burton, and Holli' Conway.
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SIX was created by Tony winners Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Marlow and Moss won the 2022 Tony Award for Best Original Score, and the show's costume designer Gabriella Slade took home the award for Best Costume Design. Moss and Jamie Armitage co-direct the production which is produced by Kenny Wax, Wendy and Andy Barnes, George Stiles, and Kevin McCollum.
TDF’s Introduction to Theatre Program has been facilitating students' exposure to Broadway and Off-Broadway for over two decades. The program is run at no cost to schools or students. The not-for-profit organization was founded in 1968.
Introduction to Theatre is made possible by the generous support of the following individuals and institutions: Anonymous, The Cornelius N. Bliss Memorial Fund, Con Edison, The Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, Myrna and Freddie Gershon, Howard Gilman Foundation, Phyllis Jo Kubey, The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, The Thomas A. and Georgina T. Russo Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Andrew and Merrill Silver, Sony USA Foundation.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.