The Rotary Club of Boca Raton’s – 19th Annual “Future Stars” Performing Arts Competition
What started 19 years ago as a dream by 2003-2004 club president Rick Taylor for a grassroots performing arts competition has evolved into the largest event of its kind in the Southeast United States. Produced, directed and underwritten by The Rotary Club of Boca Raton Future Stars is a professionally directed performing arts competition that gives middle and high school, vocal and dance students an opportunity to perform on a big stage in front of big audiences. Over the years the venues have grown from Boca Raton High School, to Lynn University to our current home at Mizner Park Amphitheater. Many of the young artists who have honed their craft on The Future Stars stage have gone on to national acclaim in TV, recording, stage and screen. These artists include Chloe Dolandis, Kendra Erika, Maggie Baugh, Mason Pace, Alex Anderson and Billy Bell just to name a few! With Rotarians using their skills as Masters of Ceremonies, directing, producing and ushering as well as members of The Florida Atlantic University and Palm Beach State College Rotaract clubs assisting backstage, Future Stars has become a true community initiative.
The Rotary Club of Boca Raton & The Festival of the Arts Boca will present the 19th Annual Future Stars Competition on Tuesday, March 7th, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. Thanks to our host, the City of Boca Raton, Future Stars will return this year to the beautiful Mizner Park Amphitheater in Downtown Boca Raton.
Future Stars was born when Rotary member Rick Taylor’s daughter was then a budding high school vocalist. Rick believed that talented young people like his daughter deserved more and better productions in which to showcase and develop their talents. Future Stars was born from this goal. The mission of Rotary’s Future Stars Performing Arts Competition is to give South Florida’s most talented high school and middle school performers a professional quality production worthy of their amazing talent.
The audition for this year’s show will be held in early 2023. Follow the Future Stars Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/futurestarsboca for audition details. Our audition judges in 2020 saw seventy-nine performers who vied to become finalists in one of the show’s five competition categories: high school and middle school dance solo, high school and middle school vocal solo, and dance group performance. The audition judges – including Rotary members and performing arts pros – will have the difficult job of selecting the 29 finalists who will competed in Future Stars 2023.
This year we will permit auditions via digital video for any performer electing to audition remotely. We encourage all performers who are able to audition live to attend the audition in person, because no recording can match the excitement of a live performance. The remote audition option is available for performers who are unable to attend the live audition.
The City of Boca Raton is our host for the April 3rd Future Stars competition at the City’s beautiful Mizner Park Amphitheater. The event is professionally staged, with rock-star quality sound and light by AEG Live. The Amphitheater is fully tented for our event. The City also provides a security detail, so everyone can enjoy the Future Stars show in safety and comfort. Finally, Future Stars is a true community event, and all but the front 300 seats are free to the public. For each of the last three years, 1,000-plus audience members were on hand for Future Stars.
The performers in the Future Stars competition represent schools and performance educators from all over South Florida. Middle school and high school students who live in any of the coastal counties from Monroe County to Brevard County are eligible to audition. Many Future Stars alumni have gone on to college-level study at prestigious music and dance programs and professional careers in the performing arts. The Rotary Club of Boca Raton has helped many Future Stars participants with college scholarship assistance so they could follow their dream of a career in the arts.
The judges for the Future Stars competition are esteemed dance and vocal professionals, a panel equal to the talent that will be on display. Each participant receives a finalist medal and the top three performers in each category receive awards. But if you ask the participants, they’d tell you that the real prize is the opportunity to perform on a beautiful South Florida night on one of the loveliest stages you can find, with dynamite professional sound and lighting, with all their friends and family there to cheer them on.
For information contact Julie Vianale, Rotary Club of Boca Raton Future Stars Co-Chairman, 561-945-5548, email: [email protected].
