NBC’s new drama series “Smash” takes you behind the scenes of a Broadway show as a group of people come together to put on a musical production based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. The series will premieres February 6 (10-11 p.m. ET) and stars Debra Messing (“Will & Grace”), Katharine McPhee (“American Idol”) and Oscar winner Anjelica Huston (“Prizzi’s Honor”), along with other talented actors. With the launch of this, what looks like to be a hit series NBC has teamed up with iTheatrics to start ‘Smash’: Make a Musical,” which is a charitable causes that helps to create musical theater programs in underprivileged schools throughout the nation.

The program kicks off this month in 20 schools in 20 U.S. cities, and will help the schools stage their own productions and implement self-sustaining platforms. The stars of NBC’s “Smashed” are taking part in the campaign as well, and will join with iTheatrics at The Junior Theater Festival in Atlanta January 13-15, where they’ll announce the first 20 schools selected. You can apply at makeamusical.org for the second cycle which will be starting in the fall 2012.

The 20 programs launching this month are in the following cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland (Ore.), Boston, Baltimore/Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Houston, Nashville, New York, Oakland, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh, Seattle and St. Louis (participating schools will be announced on January 15).

However iTheatrics has a longer term mission in mind. They hope that this program will be just the beginning and will help the Junior Theater Project to produce 180 additional “Make a Musical” programs in the fall. In 2013, iTheatrics plans on initiating an additional 200 programs and their ultimate goal is to have 1,000 new arts programs impacting the lives of over one million U.S. students by twenty-fourteen.

*Disclaimer: The credit for the avatar goes to DeviantArt Artist Yggdrasil-of-Mitho. Credit for the photos used in this article goes to DeviantArt Artist xmontpetitx.*