Common Thread

If you ever need a reminder of the power of theatre within a community, and particularly for young people, all you need to do is attend the annual DPAC Rising Star Awards. Every May, the Durham Performing Arts Center is filled with hundreds of supportive parents and screaming theatre kids who have gathered to celebrate the best that high school theatre in this area has had to offer in the past year. 

The DPAC Rising Star Awards are part of the larger National High School Musical Theatre Awards, more commonly known as the Jimmy Awards, and serve as the “first round” to the larger awards for those in central North Carolina. The two winners of the DPAC Rising Star Awards each earn a $2,000 scholarship and an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to compete in the Jimmy Awards next month. 

For those pursuing a career in theatre, it’s an unparalleled opportunity to work with Broadway artists, directors, and choreographers in workshops. But even those who don’t plan to make theatre their career have much to gain from leveling up their craft and meeting other theatre-loving teens from across the country. Past Jimmy Award participants have included popular Broadway and film actors like Renée Rapp, Eva Noblezada, and Andrew Barth Feldman. 

The nominating committee viewed 54 high school musical theater productions over the past year and considered 216 student nominees. From these, they selected not only twenty talented finalists for the Best Actor and Best Actress awards, but also nominees for categories ranging from Best Student Orchestra to Best Student Costume Design.  

In the lead-up to the awards, the students work with an impressive team to put together the medleys that highlight each performer’s role for which they’re nominated and the group production numbers. David Henderson serves as Head Coach, Mark Hopper as Music Director & Arranger, and Freddie Lee Heath as Head Choreographer – all three are icons of the local theatre community. Yolanda Rabun and Lisa Jolley served as additional vocal coaches, while Jose Rondon Jr. was the choreographer for the closing number. 

This year’s ceremony was more special than ever before as it marked the 15th anniversary of the DPAC Rising Star Awards, which were born in 2010. Past winners returned to hand out each of the awards and sang a heartfelt rendition of “For Good” from Wicked. Brendan Stackhouse, a theatre director and choreographer who most recently served as Resident Director of the Les Misérables national tour, was Guest Director for the evening. (Check out my interview with him earlier that week.) 

Another exciting addition was the brand new Best Ensemble Member award, inspired by the Best Performance in an Ensemble award that last year’s DPAC Rising Star winner, Josiah Jennings, won at the Jimmys last June. Around 100 students were chosen from participating schools to take part in the ensemble numbers, which allows more students to take part in the DPAC Rising Star Awards than just the twenty finalists. The four inaugural winners were Thomas Barnhill (Weaver Academy), Sophia Bell (Cardinal Gibbons High School), Emma Bernstein (Durham Academy), and Angel Johnson (Jordan Matthews High School). 

Clay Aiken returned as host, bringing both levity and a clear appreciation for the students to his presentation of the evening’s program. While Clay is perhaps best known for winning American Idol and his television roles, he has also starred on Broadway several times, including most recently in Ruben & Clay’s First Annual Christmas Carol Family Fun Pageant Spectacular Reunion Show at the Imperial Theater. 

Clay is an excellent host for the awards. When he joked about the loud screams of the audience (noting that it’s the “most energetic audience” that ever graces DPAC) and the tech people’s propensity for wearing black, it’s clear that he’s a theatre kid himself, not someone from outside of the community making fun of them. 

One of the most thoughtful parts of the show is that it features a student tech team from stage manager Sasha Wolfrum to teleprompt operator Robert Warren. In this way, it creates opportunities for even the sometimes-forgotten technical theatre students to experience what it’s like to put on a show at a massive venue like DPAC. 

The first award given out this year also recognized a different kind of involvement in the arts, as Diane Wilson from ABC-11 News gave Elena Arias and Corra Balding the awards for Best Student Reporter. As someone who is (obviously) passionate about arts journalism, it warms my heart to see their talent being nurtured and recognized. 

In past years, the first act of the evening has been dominated by performances, while the awards took up the second act. This year, Brendan Stackhouse spread the awards across both acts, which definitely improved the flow. The show opened with a medley of songs from Hamilton, with the ensemble dressed in red, white, or blue shirts – perhaps a thoughtful nod to America 250, this year’s celebration of the country’s semiquincentennial. They were joined at the end by the finalists, all dressed in their costumes from their shows. 

The finalists performed in two groups, with ten in each medley. Each one performed a part of one of their solos in the show for which they were nominated. 

Medley one consisted of: 

• Khatari Lane, “Make a Move” (Donkey, Shrek the Musical, Nash Central High School)
• Conor Hernandez, “Stop!” (Damian, Mean Girls: High School Version, Durham Academy)
• Natalie Gossin, “All For You” (Gertrude McFuzz, Seussical, St. David’s School)
• Gabriel Emery, “God, I Hate Shakespeare!” (Nick Bottom, Something Rotten!, Wake Forest High School)
• Mollie Reeves, “Vanilla Ice Cream” (Amalia, She Loves Me, Cardinal Gibbons High School)
• Colleen Eveson, “Bring Him Home” (Jean Valjean, Les Misérables, Saint Mary’s School)
• Maddie Behrens, “A Trip to the Library” (Ilona, She Loves Me, Cardinal Gibbons High School
• Mason Miller, “The Oldest Established” (Nathan, Guys & Dolls, South Garner High School)
• Gabriella Brunson, “World Burn” (Regina George, Mean Girls: High School Version, Pinecrest High School) 
• Nicholas Sanchez, “Step in Time” (Bert, Mary Poppins, Enloe Magnet High School) 

Medley two consisted of: 

• Kael Alley, “Stranger” (Will Bloom, Big Fish: High School Edition, Millbrook High School)
• Gabrielle James, “Adelaide’s Lament” (Miss Adelaide, Guys & Dolls, South Garner High School)
• Campbell Hill, “Amazing Mayzie” (Mayzie La Bird, Seussical, St. David’s School)
• Owen Henderson, “A Musical” (Nostradamus, Something Rotten!, Wake Forest High School)
• Rosalie Salissou, “From the Bottom of my Broken Heart” (Snow White, Once Upon a One More Time, Weaver Academy) 
• Ethan Johnson, “Nothing” (August, Water for Elephants: High School Edition, C.E. Jordan High School) 
• Alexander Min, “SOS” (Sam, Mamma Mia!, East Chapel Hill High School) 
• Caleb Zedek, “She Loves Me” (Georg, She Loves Me, Cardinal Gibbons High School) 
• Rain Reading, “Practically Perfect” (Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins, Enloe Magnet High School) 
• Faith Sutton Daniels, “I Will Always Love You” (Rachel, The Bodyguard, Knightdale High School) 

All of the performances were astounding, from Gabrielle James’s hilarious rendition of “Adelaide’s Lament” to Faith Sutton Daniels’s show-stopping “I Will Always Love You,” which earned mid-song applause multiple times. The judges – Meredith Blair (President & CEO of The Booking Group), Courtney Liu (Assistant Professor of Music Theatre at Elon University), and Eric Woodall (Artistic Director of Theatre Raleigh) – definitely had a difficult choice to make when picking the winners. 

The show included two group numbers with the finalists: the title song from “Fame,” with everyone dressed in their best 80s workout wear, and “New Music” from Ragtime, which never fails to make me cry. The show finished with the ensemble performing “Hitting the Road” from Maybe Happy Ending, the most recent Best Musical winner at the Tony Awards, and a fitting end to a ceremony celebrating this new generation of performers. 

While the performances were fantastic, the winners accepting their awards was also touching. There were many enthusiastic speeches, including the teen who excitedly shouted, “Hi girlfriend!” before starting his acceptance. Seeing how much these awards clearly meant to the students who won them made the night feel even more special. 

Green Level High School took home Best Student Orchestra for Seussical, Heritage High School won Best Student Choreography for Newsies, and Massey Hill Classic School’s Hadestown: Teen Edition and Cardinal Gibbons High School’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat took home Best Ensemble in their respective tiers. The Best Ensemble and Best Musical awards are divided into two tiers according to each school’s budget for their musical production. 

Michael “Kit” Gouldie won Best Student Lighting Design for Knightdale High School’s SIX the Musical, and Lillie Martin took home Best Student Costume Design for Durham School of the Arts’s Hadestown: Teen Edition. Harper Lindberg and Reese Given shared the award for Best Student Choreography for Newsies at Heritage High School. Best Student Set Design was awarded to St. Thomas More Academy’s Dayana Cruz for their production of Swept Away. Knightdale High School won Best Musical in Tier 1 for SIX the Musical, and Wake Forest High School’s production of Something Rotten! took the prize in Tier 2. 

The New York Film Academy bestowed scholarships on five finalists: Gabriel Emery, Nicholas Sanchez, Gabriella Brunson, Campbell Hill, and Ethan Johnson. Maddie Behrens very deservedly won Best Dancer. The DPAC Shining Star Award is chosen by the twenty finalists themselves; the winner, Colleen Eveson, noted in her speech that it was a big day for her as she had graduated from Saint Mary’s earlier that same day. 

The two big awards of the night were handed out by last year’s winners, Josiah Jennings and Carmen Sophia Dubon. In her opening, Carmen told the crowd, “If you want something, you have to go and get it.” It’s great advice for winners Gabriel Emery of Wake Forest High School and Mollie Reeves of Cardinal Gibbons High School. 

I got to talk to some of the finalists on the red carpet before the show started. Mollie said, “Getting that [nomination] email, it means all of those late nights and all of those lessons, going from rehearsal to a voice lesson to dance class, it was all worth it. It’s a little bit of external validation, and it’s lovely, but it’s also about getting to create a new show with a bunch of peers who are similarly passionate.” 

As to what she would be most excited about if she won? She said, “Working with all of the coaches that they’ve got up there, like a taste of what it’s like to work with professionals in the city, would be super cool. And getting to meet high schoolers from all across the country!” 

Gabriel Emery answered similarly, saying that he would most look forward to “Meeting new people, from across the country, just the best of the best in my age range, and working with incredible teachers.” On the topic of being nominated, he said, “It means so much; it doesn’t feel real. I just love being surrounded by such talented performers and I’m learning so much from each one of them.” 

In fact, almost every one of the finalists that I spoke to said that the best part of the DPAC Rising Star Awards is getting to meet and perform with their fellow nominees, sharing their love of theatre and witnessing each other’s talent. That passion and camaraderie is what makes the DPAC Rising Star Awards so special, and it’s a privilege to get to experience it as an audience member. 

If you’d like to learn more about the DPAC Rising Star Awards, you can visit DPAC’s website. 

Photo Credit: HuthPhoto