<p>Does anyone have an opinion about this new "Jimmy" award (named after James Nederlander). As I can summize, it looks like several regional competitions that send 1 male and 1 female to NYC to compete for the first ever "Jimmy". I would love to hear from anyone who has participated in one of the regional competitions, attended one of the awards ceremonies, or is going as a finalist in June for it.</p>
<p>It sounds like a very nice and new award program and that your son is involved in it. The thing is, only those who live in areas where there are regional awards for MT can participate. I have read of such regional competitions/awards for MT in certain regions of the country sponsored by professional theaters in those regions and they sound really super. We have nothing like that in our region or state. Nobody from here could even qualify, therefore, for these national MT awards.</p>
<p>We have 2 programs in Southern California. One is affiliated with McCoy-Rigby Entertainment and the MACY (music and arts commendation for youth) awards for HS theater. They teamed up (the MACY’s have been around for 39 years as a separate awards program) McCoy-Rigby is sponsoring the 2 students. My daughter (a junior) was one of 3 girls called back after judges saw over 40 shows in our area. The girl who won is a senior and has tremendous stage presence and a very powerful belt! 5 boys were called back and the boy selected was amazing as well. The winners were announced at the awards show on May 17.</p>
<p>We have another program in our area called the JRAY (after the great John Raitt) sponsored by Fullerton Civic Light Opera. They will have their award ceremony on May 31–they had about 25 participating schools and cover a greater geographic area. They are brand new and started this program just for the HS National awards. They don’t call back finalist but just announce from seeing the shows who the runner’s up and winners will be on that evening. Our area has an enormous number of schools and programs with a large number of Performing Arts High Schools (we are a regular high school).</p>
<p>Each regional competition (all sponsored by professional theaters) send 1 boy and 1 girl to NYC for 5 days to compete. There are 30 such competitions nationwide so there will be 6o kids going to NYC. They will narrow to 10 boys and 10 girls to compete on television with the remaining participants becoming the “ensemble” for the show. The winners receive a $25,000 a year scholarship for 4 years to NYU or $5000 cash. The award show is to air on June 29th or 30th I think. Should be a great celebration for HS theater programs across the country. Wishing my daughter could have gone but very happy for those who will be going from our area–it is very exciting.</p>
<p>The Houston metropolitan area has the Tommy Tune awards sponsored by Theater Under the Stars (TUTS). 45 area high schools compete each year from all over the 4th largest metropolitan area in the country. Winners are based on a single viewing of a performance by a panel of judges as described above for the JRAY awards.</p>
<p>We are very excited that my son is a finalist for our areas competition!!! He has to compete with other leading males in June and one will go on to the Nationals. He now has 2 weeks to find and prepare 3 songs…YIKES</p>
<p>Our area has the Cappie awards which is a Nationally based program in several areas that have students from each participating school formally critique each other and ultimately choose their Cappie winner in each of several categories. The awards night is a “red carpet” gala at our largest local theatre venue that houses all of the Broward County National Tours. These events are exciting and wonderful to attend and the winners feel very accomplished. Hats off to all the planners and producers of the great programs that give our kids a venue to shine.</p>
<p>purple9…good luck to your son in his final 2 weeks of preparation. My son is going as the Male performer for the McCoy Rigby Macy group so maybe they will be in NY together. Keep us posted and the best of luck to him and all of the contenders :)</p>
<p>britbrat - congrats on your son’s selection to compete for what looks like quite a prestigious award :D. Most of the organizations that are participating are known for putting on extremely high quality theatre productions, and so I think it is a huge honor to be chosen. </p>
<p>I am excited about the buzz that all this hopefully will create (I am all for promoting the arts), and may be next year even more theatres may participate, although I am sure that number of high schools, and legitimacy of the organization will come into play, and I don’t think that every company that gives out “local theatre awards” will qualify.</p>
<p>One thing I am confused about though is that the winner will receive a scholarship to NYU, as I think most kids have already committed to the college they will be going to in the fall, and I am not sure that that makes a whole lot of sense then, but may be I am not understanding it correctly :).</p>
<p>Congrats, and BAL wishes to purple9’s S as well!</p>
<p>MTgrlsmom…I believe that the details are being worked out on the NYU admittance as they realize that if a Senior wins the final competition, they are already likely set on where they are going to school, and if it is a younger student, they are then guaranteed admittance to NYU Cap21 for future years. Being that it is a brand new competition, it is likely to be “a work in progress” at least for this year. More news to come as it is available :)</p>
<p>Students other than seniors could win. But yes, if a senior were to win, the scholarship would not make sense if it were to NYU. In my opinion, a scholarship of the same size should be offered by this program to any college (that doesn’t mean admittance to any college, but it means the organization will give a private scholarship to a student to be used to whichever school he/she is admitted to).</p>
<p>I’d be interested to see the wording of the scholarship information. I can’t seem to find anything about it on the website linked. Do any of you who are involved with this know where it can be viewed?</p>
<p>Found it:</p>
<p>“Winners will be selected by a panel of industry experts and receive four-year scholarship assistance to attend NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts.Department of Drama contingent upon acceptance into the program.”</p>
<p>As I suspected, it’s contingent upon acceptance.</p>
<p>Just wanted to say how wonderful your son was at the MACY. We were so impressed by his wonderful singing voice.<br>
I also was a little confused by the senior issue. That is why I was hopeful for my daughter because she is a junior and could have actually possibly used the NYU scholarship. They have some kinks to work out but it is a great thing for HS theater.</p>
<p>Thanks CalMTMom…it is all very exciting and we are very proud of him. The website is beginning to post clips from the participating organizations awards ceremonies and it is great to watch the talent from the different parts of the country. And of course, there is always YouTube to see some of the amatuer clips. Perhaps those clips could act as a tool for those students who are earlier in the MT process to see what type of competition there is for the few spots at the schools that offer BFA programs. I do think it is helpful to see others and then determine whether a student could benefit from some lessons or exposure to summer programs or community theatre to “bump” up the level of experience. It was heartbreaking at the auditions this year for colleges to see how many students were completely illprepared and parents that did not have a clue about the level of competition that their child was up against. </p>
<p>I remain daily grateful for this forum, as had it not been for CC, we would not be where we are now with my son’s college future.</p>
<p>Never heard of this one. We have always participated in the National Youth Theatre awards. ([National</a> Youth Theatre](<a href=“http://www.NationalYouthTheatre.com%5DNational”>http://www.NationalYouthTheatre.com) ) All students who are reviewed by the NYT during the course of the year are eligible.</p>
<p>chrissyblu…the Old Globe Awards is the one for your area.</p>
<p>[Programs</a> for Students - The Old Globe](<a href=“http://www.theoldglobe.org/education/students/index.aspx]Programs”>http://www.theoldglobe.org/education/students/index.aspx)</p>
<p>They should be sending 1 Male and 1 Female performer. Their awards ceremony was on April 25th I believe.</p>
<p>D is attending the NYU Steinhardt Summer Musical Theater program this summer and they are attending the National HS MT Awards show the night of their first day of classes. She knows a number of kids going to the nationals, so it is particularly exciting.</p>
<p>The Pittsburgh Area hosts The Gene Kelly Awards! 28 high schools participate. Take a look at the video from the award show! </p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.wpxi.com/video/19551075/index.html]Video[/url”>http://www.wpxi.com/video/19551075/index.html]Video[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Has anyone heard whether this event will be televised?</p>
<p>We are very excited! One of the girls from my Ds’ school is going to represent S.D. at the awards in NYC! (My D was not eligible this year because she did straight plays… which apparently will be part of the program next year, but not this year… and she is off to college, so it won’t matter anyway.)</p>
<p>anyone from the boston area know what qualifying awards will replace the spotlight awards now that nsmt has gone bankrupt?
maybe us boston kids just don’t get to compete at all now! that would be a shame!
poor north shore…</p>