A new season of touring Broadway shows is coming to San Diego in October. But before then, theater fans will have an opportunity to see talented, local students who one day may be performing in those shows or on the Great White Way.
The Broadway San Diego High School Musical Theatre Awards is scheduled to be held May 26 at the historic Balboa Theatre and will give local high school students an opportunity to showcase their talents and compete in a national competition called The Jimmy Awards.
The San Diego show is the local arm of the Jimmys, as they are called, and is an initiative of Broadway San Diego, the organization that brings touring theater productions to San Diego.
Organizers of the theater awards show call it an exciting opportunity to highlight San Diego students and the local theater community.
“It’s my favorite initiative that we have here,” said Vanessa Ybarra Davis, vice president of Broadway San Diego and producer of the awards show. “It’s a lot of work but it is so rewarding.”
Students from 26 dozen county high schools have been nominated and will undergo a week-long training program that includes coaching sessions with local theater professionals.
The training program leads to the awards show, which will feature performances from five of the top musicals. The top performers in categories Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Musical production will be recognized, with the top two performers going on to compete in the national contest in New York this June.
Joey Landwehr, the artistic director for the show, said the awards program has a larger impact than just recognizing local talent.
“Theater changes lives and theater saves lives,” he said.
Landwehr recalls seeing the impact the show has had on students who were facing troubled home lives or other challenges. He recalled a former participant who performed in “Les Miserables” and returned to San Diego to work with students in a class.
“He had changed from this young, little high school boy that I had known into this gentleman of the theater,” he said. “And he gave them such hope for what they were doing. And then, he opened his mouth and he sang. And it was like the heavens opened up. It’s one of the most glorious voices I’ve heard come out of a young person’s mouth. And it brought just tears to everybody’s eyes.”
Davis credits support from the community for keeping the program going, even during the pandemic when it used a hybrid format.
San Diego Theatres, which operates the Balboa Theatre, is the venue sponsor. San Diego State University’s theater department offers acceptance into their program for the top two winners. D.Z. Akin’s offers free lunches to students in the workshop.
The local awards program is now in its 11th year and more than 4,200 local students have participated in the program since its inception.
Some of them have made it to productions, including Broadway shows.
Several shows that were on Broadway will be part of the 47th season of Broadway San Diego that starts this fall. The season will include Tony Award winner “Kimberly Akimbo,” “Back to the Future: The Musical,” “Some Like It Hot,” “Wicked,” “A Beautiful Noise The Neil Diamond Musical,” “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” and the comedy “Shucked”, directed by San Diego’s Jack O’Brien.
“Our shows bring you closer to Broadway than ever before,” said Davis.
Information on those plays is available at broadwaysd.com
Information on the student awards program is available on awards.broadwaySD.com.