The Broadway Education Alliance (BEA) is pleased to announce the 2025-2026 annual Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance will be held on Sunday, May 17th at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street in New York City. The event begins at 7:00 pm.
The Roger Rees Awards, presented by BEA and Disney Theatrical Group, features the Outstanding Performer Award that recognizes students who have performed a leading role in an officially licensed high school musical production. Two students selected by a panel of distinguished Broadway professionals will represent the Greater New York region at The Broadway League Foundation’s Jimmy Awards® (The National High School Musical Theatre Awards®) on June 22, 2026, at the Minskoff Theatre.
The Roger Rees Awards portfolio of awards also includes: the Goren Family Foundation Choral Award celebrating excellence in choral group performance; New Faces | 2026, presented in association with the Casting Society, which celebrates students’ dedication to their craft and provides career development classes to help them further their training; the Student Reporter Award recognizing excellence in journalism, sponsored by BroadwayWorld; the Starcatcher Award honoring an Outstanding Performer Nominee who exemplifies dedication, leadership, teamwork, and passion; and the Award for Excellence in Innovative Theater Arts Education sponsored by Theatrical Rights Worldwide and the Broadway Education Alliance, created to celebrate the dedication and resourcefulness of educators around the region.
For the 2nd year, Broadway Education Alliance will offer the Stage Management Fellowship which provides an opportunity for students with an interest in technical theater to work as part of the RRA team and gain hands-on production experience.
New York City Center’s Education & Community Engagement Department will present the Scenic and Costume Designer Showcase recognizing students with a passion for design and will be announcing auditions for New York City Center’s Youth Orchestra. This group of dedicated student musicians will accompany the 2026 Roger Rees Awards Showcase as well as work with guest conductors and professional musicians working with City Center’s Encores! Series and on Broadway.
To be eligible to participate in the Roger Rees Awards, a high school must be located within the following New York counties: the Bronx, Dutchess, Kings (Brooklyn), Nassau, New York (Manhattan), Orange, Putnam, Queens, Rockland, Suffolk, Ulster and Westchester. In order to be eligible for the Outstanding Performer Award, the school must present an officially licensed high school musical production.
The Roger Rees Awards is made possible by the generous support of many Broadway industry professionals and leading companies including: Nancy Nagel Gibbs, Rick Elice, Anant Das, Disney Theatrical Group, New York City Center, the Goren Family Foundation, Theatrical Rights Worldwide, Broadway Inbound, Music Theatre International and many others.
Previous Roger Rees Awards national honorees include the 2023 Best Actress-winner Lauren Marchand, 2021 Best Actor-finalist Mateo Lizcano, 2019 Best Actress-winner Ekele Ukegbu and scholarship winner Jeremy Fuentes, 2018 Best Actor-winner Andrew Barth Feldman, and 2015 Best Actress-winner Marla Louissaint.
In addition to recognizing the importance of theater arts education, the program celebrates the exceptional life and career-long artistic excellence of Broadway’s beloved actor/director, Roger Rees. Rees received the Olivier® and Tony® Awards for his performance in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, and Tony nominations for Indiscretions and as co-director of Peter and the Starcatcher. Throughout his life, he was a committed educator and generous mentor to young artists. 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.” Rees passed away in July 2015 after a year-long battle with brain cancer. He was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in November 2015
For more information on the Broadway Education Alliance, visit www.BEAlliance.org.