Every summer, teachers from across the country descend on New York City for Broadway Teaching Group's Broadway Teachers Workshops, three days' worth of professional development. It pairs arts educators with Broadway professionals for workshops, networking, and, most excitingly, tickets to Broadway shows. Produced in conjunction with theatrical licensor Music Theatre International, the popular events sell out every year, offering teachers not only the chance to learn new teaching methods and skills, but also they earn professional development hours and graduate-level academic credits.

This past July, New Jersey school counselor and theatre teacher Jennifer Shue became our reporter on the scene. Get an inside look at this year's workshop—including sessions with Huey Lewis, music director David Loud, choreographer Denis Jones, and more—in this first-person journal from the experience.

My name is Jennifer Shue, and this is my 15th year attending Broadway Teachers Workshop. I am a school counselor at Passaic Valley High School in Little Falls, New Jersey, as well as the theatre director for over 20 years. I fill many theatrical roles in our school, including director, producer, and drama club advisor. I’m lucky enough to be able to do two things I absolutely love, and have been with the same school for 27 years. Each year going to the BTW, I get excited to learn something new to bring back to my students, and this workshop never disappoints. Over the years, I’ve made connections and networked with many Broadway professionals as well as other directors from all over the world. Through this workshop, we were able to connect with Disney and become one of the first schools to pilot Freaky Friday—You can even see us in the promotional commercial for the movie musical that came out a few years ago!

Day 1

Another year, another BTW! I hopped on a bus right outside my house at 8 AM to start the journey (I live 25 minutes outside of NYC). The first year I went, my colleague, Caren, and I signed up for the workshops thinking it would be easiest (and cheapest) to commute back and forth each day. We quickly realized that was not a good idea as we were falling asleep in some of the evening shows—sorry actors! Since then, we’ve always stayed in NYC for the weekend. Caren has since retired, so I joined another friend, Jen, from a local school and her college friend, Lynn, from Vermont for the weekend’s workshops, lunches, and dinners. I’m also fortunate to have many local friends and former students that are in NYC, especially Broadway veteran Jess LeProtto, who teaches at BTW from time to time. If available, we usually meet up for a lunch or dinner. Jen also counts Jelani Remy (of Back to the Future) as a former student and friend, and he always meets us for dinner each year!

When I arrived in NYC, I had some extra time, so I stopped at Bird and Branch on 45th for coffee and breakfast—a recommendation from Aaron Tveit on Instagram. It’s a cute coffee shop with excellent food. I got the avocado toast and it didn’t disappoint!

I arrived at ART/NY Studios, where the workshops were all held, and checked in to get my schedule and show tickets. I met up with Jen and Lynn and grabbed our seats for the day. The first workshop we attended was “Scenic Painting Fundamentals” with scenic and costume designer Tobin Ost. I chose this because as a director, I don’t really get involved in the painting aspect of the show, so it was good to get some tips in case I’m needed. Our holiday show is student run, so I look forward to bringing this information to the students for when they are in charge.

The second workshop was the “Music Theatre International/Cur8 Workshop.” This workshop has evolved over the years and has gotten much better. MTI tells us what new releases will be coming out and has a panel of singers that perform some of the new releases. They also do a quiz about shows, where the winners are awarded MTI prizes. (I was lucky enough to win a Rehearsescore and projections package in previous years!) This year, they also covered Cur8, the ticketing company that used to be called ShowTix4U. I’ve used ShowTix, and also was one of the first to use Cur8 since we have two summer shows going on right now at school.

The third workshop was a "Meet the Artist" session that featured Huey Lewis of this season’s The Heart of Rock and Roll. As an ‘80s child, I was thrilled! He is so kind, cool, and so proud of his show. Two of his cast members also joined us, and sang from the show. When they were singing, Huey got out his phone and recorded them like a proud parent! This workshop was one of my favorites of the weekend!

The last workshop for the day was with music director David Loud, “Singing Sondheim.” This is another favorite as he told us the story of different Sondheim shows with singers that have been in them. I loved hearing how he interprets the music. Some key lines were: “separate music from lyrics,” “say the song like a monologue,” “write it down,” and “breathe and take notes.”

With workshops done for the day, I quickly went to check in to my hotel, CitizenM on 50th. This is my first time staying at this hotel. It has a very European feel and I love it! I’ve stayed at many hotels over the years and this one may be my favorite. It’s a great location for getting to the workshops, and gets you away from the chaos of Times Square. After check-in, I met two of my current students who were in the city to see a show. We met at 5 Napkin Burger and had a great time catching up.

That night’s show was The Outsiders. I was lucky enough to see it in previews and loved it, so I don't mind seeing it again. We actually had understudies for the two main leads, and they were both great, as well.

Day 2

The second day kicked off with “Choreographing a Number Organically,” led by Denis Jones. As a director with some dance background, I like to hear how choreographers start their process. He used the song “Telephone Hour” from Bye Bye Birdie and got some volunteer teachers (my friend Jen being one of them) to move through the music and create choreography. He talked about the five Ws (who, what, when, where, and why), and using the face.

Next was “Path to Broadway,” another favorite. This featured a panel of actors who told us their stories of getting to Broadway, including some funny and scary audition stories. And then they sang us one of their audition favorites. This year, we had such a great panel, but my stand-out was Barton Cowperthwaite, who’s currently in The Outsiders. He has such a unique story, including being a cancer survivor. I remember him as a dancer on Netflix’s Pretty Little Things. He talked about booking The Outsiders, as well as being in Japan for An American in Paris and auditioning for the Netflix series. He also told us the story about getting The Outsiders and then going through a brain tumor, as well as his engagement and wedding. I don’t normally go up and talk to the actors after the workshop, but I felt compelled to speak with him and thank him for sharing. He was so kind and has a beautiful soul.

The third workshop was “Directing Gatsby, A Practical Handbook for Actors” with David Ruttura. In this workshop, he chose volunteers to break down a scene, and spoke about the show, movie, and book.

This was a two-show day, so we had a quick bite at Nizza and then headed over to see Illinoise, a dance show that was on Broadway for a limited run. The show was beautiful, and it was nice to see some So You Think You Can Dance stars in the show.

After Illinoise, we headed over to Becco (my favorite NYC restaurant) to have dinner with Jen, Lynn, and Jelani Remy. As always, an amazing meal with even better company!

The day’s second show was Water for Elephants, and I went in intrigued. I saw the movie when it came out but don’t remember much. What I saw on the Tony Awards didn’t especially pique my interest—but seeing the show, I loved it! I am a Glee fan as well, so seeing Grant Gustin was exciting. The stunts were amazing, and I loved how they told the story from the perspective of the older character. This was a pleasant surprise.

Day 3

After a quick bite at the hotel, it’s time to check out and get back to ART/NY for more workshops!

The first today was “Costumes Fundamentals with Jen Caprio.” She was the costume designer for The Heart of Rock and Roll, and showed us the process of putting together a show. I enjoyed this workshop and got some good resources to bring back to school. I do help out with costumes for the five shows we do, so this was extremely helpful.

Next was Jennifer Ashley Tepper for a talk about the history of Broadway. Jennifer had an extensive knowledge of theatrical history, and it was interesting to hear how it evolved over the years.

After these two workshops, we had brunch at Dutch Fred’s. Then it was time for The Great Gatsby. I had seen this at Paper Mill [in New Jersey] and loved it, but as curious about what changes were made. At our performance, we had understudy Dan Rosales (part of our Path to Broadway workshop) playing the role of Nick Callaway, and he was outstanding. I absolutely loved this show and still am baffled why they didn’t get more Tony nominations.

And thus ended our wonderful weekend. I said goodbye to my friends and headed to Port Authority to take the bus home. As always, it was an amazing weekend where I learned many things to bring back to my school and students.