Broadway Theater Workshops was founded in 2002 by musical theater composer Neil Berg and acclaimed theater educator John Asselta upon seeing a need for ongoing training for the talented students involved in Bergen County NJ and Rockland County NY’s highly competitive local high school musical programs.
Initially conceived as a one week summer camp, the company's summer programs expanded over the years to include a Junior Theater Camp for younger performers (Grades 3 to 5); Senior Theater Camp (Grades 5 -12) with workshops conducted in acting, dancing, speech and diction, improvisation, auditioning, stage combat and more; Performance Theater Camp where campers put up a full show in a two week period of time, and the Advanced Theater Group, a subset of Senior Theater Camp for those seeking a more intensive training experience which requires auditions to be selected for advanced study in small sessions with industry professionals.
The company was acquired by Katie Barra in 2022 and has since expanded beyond summer-only programming to offer year-round Private Lessons with Broadway Instructors, as well as Master Classes and other special workshops on acting a song, improv, auditioning, and college application preparation. The company also produces full productions in Summer (grades 7-12), Fall (grades 3-12) and Spring (grades 3-8) so students can put their enhanced performance skills to practical use. BTW productions have garnered many awards: Best High School Musical (Metro), Educational Impact (Paper Mill), and Best Overall High School Comedy/Drama (Montclair University). We are so proud of the many BTW students who have graduated our program to perform on Broadway and other professional stages across the nation, or who have matriculated at top theater programs in college. And even those who don't head onto a stage have carried the lessons learned through our theater programs -- communication, articulation, self-expression, teamwork and more -- to all aspects of their lives. After all, theater skills are skills for life!
