The lights lowered in the packed performance hall, as voices dimmed to a hush and spotlights came up on the stage. Within seconds, it’s filled with dozens of high school students, all singing and dancing their hearts out.
This isn’t a normal high school theatre moment.There’s an excited edge to the air with hope and anticipation for what the night will bring. Two lucky souls will be heading to New York at the end of it, continuing on to compete in the prestigious Jimmy Awards, which have produced more than one Broadway star. Far more will walk away with hardware to display at their schools.
This was the DiscoveryAwards at theTulsa Performing Arts Center on May 29.
Among the many students on stage were three from Chandler High School --Weston Miller, Bethany Descher and James Kerr.
This was the first year the high school took part in the competition, according to theatre teacher Inda Jo Conway, and the students went fairly far. They won their places with their performances in the high school’s production of “Shrek the Musical” this spring. Kerr was up for best supporting actor, and Reagan Moehle, who wasn’t at the performance, was up for best student choreography.
Ultimately,theschoolwalkedawaywithoutanyawards, but Kerr and Descher made it to the semi-finals for the Jimmy Awards, putting them in the top 24 performers from Eastern Oklahoma.
The Discovery Awards had two tracks for the competition. Throughout the year, adjudicators attended the performancesofhighschoolsinEasternOklahoma,whose applications were accepted. There, the performances were scored in a variety of categories, with the top ones being up for awards at the performance ceremony on May 29 for things such as best direction, stage design, costuming, actor, actress and so on. They also picked the top boy and girl performers from each school, who could then compete during a week-long masterclass for spots at the Jimmy Awards.
The adjudicators then went back and made wild card selections, who were invited to the masterclass and could take part in special performances at the ceremony. The masterclass was full of workshops put on by teaching artists.
From Chandler, Kerr and Descher were selected to compete for spots in the Jimmys, with Miller being a wild card selection. Descher had a featured spot in the opening number and performed in a tap sequence with Miller later in the show.
Carr was featured in a medley for best supporting actor, performing a section of “Don’t Let Me Go,” his solo as Donkey. The award went to another Shrek performance -- Ricardo Gonzalez from Stillwater High School for his role as Lord Farquaad.
All three performed in the finale, along with all the competitors and participants.
Despite walking away empty-handed, the three shone on stage. What’s more, it’s not the end of the road. All three will be performing and competing at the International Thespian Festival in June in Indiana.
All three qualified to compete in Musical Theatre solos, with Miller also competing in Contrasting Monologues. Chandler High School will be representing the state of Oklahoma in the one-act competition with their program, “In Darkness, Audio Flowers Bloom.”