Handy Middle School - February/March 2026
About the Show
With music and lyrics by Tony Award-nominee Eddie Perfect and a book by Tony Award-nominated pair Anthony King and Scott Brown, Beetlejuice was nominated for eight 2019 Tony Awards including Best New Musical. A viral "sucks-yes" on social media, this musical struck a chord with young theatre lovers who adored its unabashed humor and emotional honesty.
-From Musical Theatre International
Educational Theatre
The Handy Middle School Theatre Program came back for it's second show with Beetlejuice Jr, after not operating for a number of years. As such, for many of these students, it was their first experience with theatre. We worked a lot on the fundamentals of teaching theatre-- backstage etiquette, projecting your voice, learning the locations of the stage. There was also a strong element of social-emotional learning, as a lot of students joined a group activity for the first time and learned what it took to work together as a team.
Approach to Work
Working on a musical with middle schoolers meant spending time teaching them aspects of three different elements of performance: acting, singing, and dancing. For acting, we worked on improv and developing a character, especially for a show with such large and out of this world characters. For singing, the students were pushed to learn harmonies and difficult counter-melodies. For dancing, the students learned how to do different elements of merengue and salsa.