National Children’s Theatre to bring Disney’s The Lion King Jr. to life

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NCT will stage The Lion King Jr., Disney’s Junior production of the internationally celebrated musical, with a cast of 50 young people aged 13 and under.

This will be the first time the Junior production, which is specially created for use in schools, is performed in South Africa.

The world of musical theatre

The performance will be the culmination of NCT’s education initiative “Musical Theatre in Schools”. Inspired by Disney Musicals in Schools, which has built sustainable theatre programmes in schools throughout the US and UK for over a decade, this new programme will see facilitators from NCT and DTG work closely with five primary schools in Gauteng for three months.

Together they will deliver life skills, creative curriculum and offer training and inspiration to teachers to ensure that the skills and ideas generated by the programme can be transferred to the school teams and the benefits felt for years to come.

Towards September, a selection of pupils from each of the five schools will come together to form a new youth theatre company at NCT. They will rehearse and perform The Lion King Jr. which will premiere at the NCT campus in Parktown, Johannesburg in early November 2024.

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In addition, NCT’s young performers will learn a wide range of new theatrical skills, including mask-making and puppetry, widening their exposure to the world of musical theatre.

“South Africa lies at the heart of The Lion King, so much of director Julie Taymor’s celebrated production is influenced by music, design and culture of South African communities,” comments Nancy Shakerley, education an audience engagement manager, Disney Theatrical Group.

“This is a wonderful and unique opportunity to partner with the National Children’s Theatre to grow the reach and engagement of the arts amongst young people through this beloved story”.

“We’re over the moon to be launching The Lion King Jr. programme in association with Disney Theatrical Group,” says NCT board chair Moira Katz. It fully aligns with NCT’s mission to use theatre arts and “edutainment” programmess to help develop South Africa’s next generation of leaders.”