The Rotary Club of Boca Raton’s – 20th Annual “Future Stars” Performing Arts Competition
The Rotary Club of Boca Raton & The Festival of the Arts Boca will present the 20th Annual Future Stars Competition on Tuesday, March 5th, 2024 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.
Watch the Future Stars 2024 Promotional Video here: https://t.ly/future_stars_2024
Produced, directed and underwritten by The Rotary Club of Boca Raton, Future Stars is a performing arts competition, professionally staged with Rock-Star quality sound and lighting provided by Festival of the Arts Boca. This gives middle and high school vocal and dance students the opportunity to perform on a BIG STAGE in front of BIG AUDIENCES!
Future Stars has evolved into the largest event of its kind in the Southeast United States. Over the years the venues have grown from Boca Raton High School, to Lynn University to our current home at Mizner Park Amphitheater, and now for the 2nd year, part of Festival of the Arts Boca. 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 Tatiana Nunez, 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.
What started 20 years ago as a dream by 2003-2004 club president Rick Taylor as a grassroots performing arts competition for students like his daughter, who was then a budding high school vocalist, Rick believed that talented young people 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.
Our audition judges in 2023 saw 63 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 – had the difficult job of selecting the 29 finalists who competed in Future Stars 2023.
For the 2024 competition, vocal auditions will be held live and in person at the Sol Theatre, Boca Raton. All dance auditions will be via digital video submission. The digital video submission option is also available for vocalists who are unable to attend the live audition, however we strongly recommend attending the vocal auditions in person, as nothing captures the performers ability and energy like a live performance! Follow the Future Stars Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/futurestarsboca for audition details and updates.
The City of Boca Raton is our host for the March 5th Future Stars competition at the City’s beautiful Mizner Park Amphitheater. The entire show is professionally video taped, and both individual contestant performances and/or entire show videos are available to purchase as part of our fundraising activities. 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 Miami-Dade 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 and arts educators, 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 all their friends and family there to cheer them on.
For information contact Chris Maners, Rotary Club of Boca Raton Future Stars Co-Chairman, 561-573-0774, email: [email protected].
