The Jazz Drama Program

What is The Jazz Drama Program? We've incorporated elements of jazz music into original musicals that we've written & developed based on what we've learned over the last ten years about what engages children. Schools can license these jazz musicals fromTheatrical Rights Worldwide who provides material for the theatrical production. We highlight each school that puts on one of our plays and share learnings with other schools as a way to empower more children and to spread the joys of jazz music and the benefits of arts education.


Though officially incorporated in December of 2003, The Jazz Drama Program (JDP) began as an idea through a 1998 Meet the Composer-New Music for Schools Grant awarded to jazz composer Eli Yamin and monies from The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation.  That year saw the production of the jazz musical composed by Yamin and Clifford Carlson.  The resulting effort, When Malindy Swings, based on a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, and involving students in the drama and music programs at the Louis …Read More...