<p>Yeah- the selection process isn’t consistent amongst the states- and like many have pointed out- not all states participate. Anyway, I found some of the kids very annoying and some of them, to me, should not even be considered in “The Best” category. Hyperbole indeed! However, they are getting great advice from the professionals and I love seeing the NYU scenes.</p>
<p>It appears that the local competitions have to be sponsored by a local professional theatre. So, if a state has more sponsoring professional theatres there could be multiple competitions in a given state state.</p>
<p>Some states are not represented at all because there are no sponsoring professional theatres in that state. </p>
<p><a href=“http://nhsmta.com/pages/participating-awards-programs[/url]”>http://nhsmta.com/pages/participating-awards-programs</a> </p>
<p>It is a cool opportunity for the kids involved. I have met a few kids who have participated over the past few years since it was started, and they felt like it was a positive experience.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone will dispute that this is a positive experience. It’s an incredible opportunity for these kids to see New York. In Florida, the winner was selected at the state thespian festival- not a professional theatre. I do see that on their website, the Florida people have a theatre attached to it. They were both from south Florida- I believe. You just can’t call them the Best of the Best if so many do not even have the opportunity to represent. I saw a girl at our state Thespian festival who blew the roof off of “And, I’m Telling you…” The girl who did it on the show tonight didn’t even come close- but the girl on the show lives in an area with a professional theatre and the girl I saw did not (or she did not have a lead in her school show). That’s what I mean about fairness. At least Young Arts allows anyone to send in a DVD but there is an entrance fee. There is no entrance fee for the Jimmy Awards.</p>
<p>I haven’t watched the show, but yes, I knew that the participating students are through local competitions sponsored by certain professional theaters such as Papermill Playhouse in NJ or Pittsburgh CLO. So, for those who don’t live near one of these sponsoring theaters, they can’t even be considered. So, while the participating theaters/regions span the US, they certainly do NOT include all areas of the US by a long shot. </p>
<p>There is NOTHING like this in our state (Vermont). And even though supportive mom says that it wasn’t in her area of Florida, there still are other award type things for musical theater that are in Florida and other areas of the country that we have nothing remotely like here in Vermont. For instance, supportivemom mentions HS musicals that go to “states.” No MT type awards or competitions occur in our state (so it is not just that we don’t have the Jimmy award ones). When I joined CC 10 years ago, as well as my own kid’s exposure at theater camp to kids from many states around the country, I learned how there are all sorts of MT competitions and awards in many regions and it was an eye opener as there is nothing in our region. Our school puts on a musical and it is at the school and that’s that. We also don’t even have a drama program at our HS (just the shows). When my kid was growing up here, there were no youth theater programs either in the area. We also have no performing arts high schools in the state. </p>
<p>So, it is not just the Jimmys, but it seems like there is a whole MT world out there for high school kids and many awards and so on that don’t exist at all where we live. And in fact, I never would have heard of YoungArts Awards through NFAA had it not been for CC and my kid submitted and got an award. In her year, she was the only NFAA award winner in ANY discipline for our entire state and that is because most kids don’t know about it. Yet, even among the small number of young people I know in performing arts from Vermont, many have gone onto success professionally. They just never went through any of these award programs. </p>
<p>But these MT recognition programs seem really neat. I agree that they do not represent all the best/talented HS students though.</p>
<p>I didn’t see the show, but who is it who is calling them ‘the best of the best’? I do think it’s a little silly to get upset about the question of fairness. Who said it had to be fair? It’s clearly not a competition where every state is represented by one boy and one girl. It never claimed to be, as far as I can see. The kids have to be involved in a previous awards program in the area where they live, and that program has to be a member of the NHSMTA and sponsored by a participating theatre. Thirty different regional awards programs participated this year, up from 25 last year. </p>
<p>I agree with Susan, these opportunities are neat for these kids. Maybe those who don’t have such an awards program in their area might want to be in touch with their local theatres and high school drama departments and get one started!</p>
<p>The show calls them the Best in their promos. Not every student has a local theatre or a drama department.</p>
<p>Selection of nominees for the awards that feed the Jimmies from our city is based on the first 45 high schools out of a list of 150 who submit their musicals for consideration. Hence, it is not a comprehensive survey of talent, just the best from about 1/3 of the area (maybe less, not sure if all the high schools in the area are on the list of 150 who get invites). I can’t imagine how they go about picking the finalists as the judges run all over the area in February and March watching show after show (45 is a LOT of shows to watch). A few shows are in the fall, so I wonder how they figure out how to compare what they saw several months in the past with the rush of shows in the Spring. They send the best actor and actress in a lead role to the Jimmies, those in supporting roles are not even considered. It seems unlikely to me that this is a process that objectively picks the best of the best.</p>
<p>My d’s PA high school only enters about once every 2-3 years, and the show entered is the all-school musical. Not all of the top theatre kids try out for that show (the departmental musical is the top draw for the theatre majors). So, when the school enters, it is not even necessarily representative of all of the talent at the school. </p>
<p>The school puts much more emphasis on Young Arts, where they routinely produce honorable mentions and finalists, and sometimes a National Scholar in the Arts.</p>
<p>The girl that won is from our awards program. Her school had the guy winner 2 years ago. Both very talented.</p>
<p>Well, I still thought it was fun to watch. These kids are really brave - first to just go off to NY, then to perform in front of the judges and all the other kids. Good for them!</p>
<p>Our school doesn’t have a way to do the Jimmies (and here in New England, jimmies are what you put on top of an ice cream cone!), but we participate in Drama Fest where the kids compete in their state, then the winner of state goes to the New England Regional. The kids love it! Not only do they get to spend an entire day seeing 7 or 8 plays (and more days of that if they progress to semi-finals, etc.), but they meet kids from neighboring high schools who also love theatre. Kids from our high school have gone to see plays and musicals at other local high schools where they met kids through Drama Fest. We even had one high school invite our a cappella groups to sing at their Spring concert! Wonderful!</p>
<p>As far as the show goes, I hope they let us get to know a few more kids next week, so the winners will be more of a surprise!</p>
<p>And I was all set for it tonight, and here in Oregon it is not even being broadcast until Sept. 24, and then from 7:00-10:00 PM all in one night! (or you can watch it at 4:00 AM the next day!) Kinda goes along with how far removed we are from the Musical Theater Arts process, even though we have some outstanding drama teachers who really do their best!</p>
<p>This was the first year that IL participated. The kids had to send in a DVD highlight reel showing them performing one ballad and one up-tempo song in their high school musical production. It had to be the lead, not a supporting role. Then the top 30 (half male, half female) were selected to attend an awards thing in Chicago where they picked the two to go to NY.</p>
<p>I saw it last night. I predicted the winners by the way they were profiled from the beginning. I enjoyed it. </p>
<p>Regarding facilities, the magnet performing arts school my D graduated from had some of the worst facilities in the county when she attended. The new building just opened for this school year and it is state of the art designed for theater,art,dance and technology. The new 1000 seat theater is amazing. The kids are so excited to be there.</p>
<p>Just bumping to remind everyone that B or B is on tonight at 8pm!</p>
<p>I really liked the format of this experience for the kids. What a great opportunity. </p>
<p>Much preferred to the Andrew Lloyd Webber talent reality show on CBC afterwards, even though the kids were quite similar in age. You can see the differences that Canada does not have the training system that the schools in the US does. Maybe someday, but with no more than 4 universities offering Bachelor degrees in MT in Canada, that’s to be expected.</p>
<p>Jackfamily, a better comparison would be with Triple Sensation, not the ALW shows to choose a Maria or a Dorothy. The kids on Broadway or Bust are high school kids, so the availability of college MT program training isn’t really relevant. There is certainly MT training available for Canadian high schoolers, just as there is in the U.S.</p>
<p>Did anyone watch this tonight? I thought the teaser trailer showed the judges saying “We can’t send her out there to sing that…” or something like that, but I didn’t that in the show. Did I miss it?</p>
<p>Loved watching this series these last 3 weeks! Makes me really sad we don’t have this kind of award for Canadians.</p>
<p>hanaliy - I noticed that also, but I think it had to do with Brittany, and the discussion about how tired her voice was. Someone then started talking about how her song was like the hardest song to sing, but then the conversation drifted off. I think they were worried that she would have a hard time singing it, and they didn’t want to put her thru that.</p>
<p>I was surprised by the boy that one. I thought the funny guy should have gotten it, and even the other boy sang better IMO. But we don’t really know what they marked them on, and the judges know a heck of a lot more than I do! The girl that won was my favorite from the get-go!</p>
<p>What a great experience for these kids - just to sing and dance (and get yelled at by directors) on Broadway.</p>
<p>Curious to know where some of these kids ended up after high school. (Realizing that some of them are not seniors but many are.)</p>
<p>The guy who won is at CMU, the girl who won is at Northwestern. Drew (top 3) is at Elon.</p>