(New York, NY – Thursday, April 25, 2024). The Broadway Education Alliance is pleased to announce that Tony Award-winner Bonnie Milligan, will host the 2023-24 Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance on Sunday, May 19, 2024 at The Gerald W. Lynch Theatre at John Jay College.
Co-sponsored by Disney Theatrical Group and the Broadway production of Back to the Future, this year’s awards event will feature over 100 high school student performers, singers and musicians representing 74 area schools who will be recognized in several performance categories including Outstanding Performer, Outstanding Choral Performance, Outstanding Solo Performance and Outstanding Student Reporter. Additionally, the New York City Center will be introducing an Outstanding Scenic and Costume Design Award and selecting a student orchestra to perform at the event.
To be eligible to participate in The Roger Rees Awards Outstanding Performer category a student must have performed a qualifying role in an officially licensed high school production of an eligible show during the 2023-2024 academic year. Following an extensive adjudication process, 50 student nominees will be selected to compete for the award at the event.
The esteemed panel of judges for this year’s Outstanding Performer award includes Erich Bergen (actor/singer); Kiara Brown Clark (Teaching Artist, Disney Theatrical Group); Jenny Gersten (director and producer, New York City Center); Baayork Lee, (actress, director/choreographer), Merri Sugarman (casting director, Tara Rubin Casting); Tom Viertel (Tony Award-winning producer of Back to the Future).
The Roger Rees Awards is the Greater New York Regional Award for The Broadway League Foundation’s National High School Musical Theatre Awards aka The Jimmy Awards®. Two students selected by this panel of Broadway experts will represent the Greater New York region at the national awards on June 24th at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway.
The Roger Rees Awards recognize the importance of theatre arts education and celebrate the exceptional life and career-long artistic excellence of Broadway’s beloved actor/director, Roger Rees. Playwright Rick Elice, Rees’ partner of over 30 years, and author of “Finding Roger,” said, “Rog would have liked this chance to educate and inspire young actors, to offer a guiding hand as so many were offered to him when he too was a kid with a dream.”
Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, May 7.