Eight middle schools. Two hundred middle school students. A full day of singing, dancing, acting, and more.

Welcome to the JumpStart Middle School Mini Musical Theatre Conference.

JumpStart Theatre is a partnership between La Jolla Playhouse, iTheatrics, and EdTA Foundation. The program provides resources and training to non-theater teachers to produce musicals in their schools. Through a combination of hands-on mentoring and boot-camp style training, the three-year program seeks to build sustainable musical theatre programs where none previously existed. The program helps students develop confidence, creativity, and teamwork skills. It exposes the students to arts and culture and trains them to become the next generation of artists and performers.

On January 27, students from the JumpStart schools came together for a mini musical theater conference hosted by Canyon Hills High School Theatre Department. At the conference, students attended workshops led by local, professional teaching artists from La Jolla Playhouse, collaborated with students from other schools, and watched performances by the high school students. In addition to performance-based workshops, students experimented with technical theatre elements in stage makeup and costumes design.

"JumpStart Theatre is a game-changer for our students," said a teacher at one of the participating schools. "It gives them a chance to experience the joy of musical theater and to learn from professional artists."

SDUSD schools participating in JumpStart Theatre include:

• Challenger Middle School

• De Portola Middle School

• Innovation Middle School

• Longfellow Middle School

• Knox Middle School

• Marston Middle School

• Montgomery Middle School

In April, all the schools will perform excerpts of their musicals on the La Jolla Playhouse stage.