Buffalo, NY – Shea’s Performing Arts Center and The Lipke Foundation announced the nominees for the 25th annual Kenny Awards in 14 award categories. Nearly 200 students and educators from the 10 finalist schools attended the announcement live at Shea’s Smith Theatre. The announcement was also aired live on Shea’s Performing Arts Center’s Facebook page.

Since the inception of the program, the Kenny Awards have recognized and honored countless outstanding musical productions in local high schools and put $120,000 into area high school theatre programs.  Now in its 25th year, the Kenny Awards will again recognize local high school talent for excellence in producing and performing musicals with host and Kenny alum Lauren Hall from One Buffalo.

The 25th Annual Kenny Awards ceremony will be held at Shea’s on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. The ceremony is the culmination of a year-long program that honors and recognizes the talent, hard work, and dedication of area students and teachers to high school musical theatre in Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and Allegany counties.

Applications for this year’s Kenny Awards program were accepted in October and reviewed by the panel of Kenny adjudicators. From the applicant pool, 10 schools were selected to participate as finalists in this year’s program and be eligible for the Outstanding Musical Production award. The finalists for the 2018 Kenny Awards are:

Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts – Chicago

Dunkirk High School – Little Shop of Horrors

Eden Jr/Sr High School – Catch Me If You Can

Forestville Central School – Disney’s Beauty & the Beast

Lewiston Porter High School – Into the Woods

Pioneer Central School – Mary Poppins

St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute – The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Starpoint High School – Mary Poppins

Tonawanda High School – Jekyll & Hyde

West Seneca West Senior High School – Anything Goes

The Kenny adjudicators viewed and evaluated the productions and determined the nominees and winners based on what they saw. There are 15 award categories, including “The Kenny” for Outstanding Musical Production in which the winning school receives a $5,000 grant from the Lipke Foundation to be used solely by the school’s theatre department. Other awards include individual performances in leading and supporting roles, as well as areas of technical production, orchestration, choreography, set design, and dance performance.

The Kenny Awards is one of 40 regional awards programs nationwide participating in the National High School Musical Awards Program, aka The Jimmy Awards, which will allow the selected Outstanding Leading Actress and Actor of the Kenny Awards to win an all-expenses-paid, week-long trip to New York City to compete in the National High School Musical Theatre Awards in June, 2018.  

This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will include rehearsals and coaching sessions with Broadway performers, performances, and other beneficial experiences. Participants in “The Jimmy Awards” will compete for various college scholarships.

The 2018 Kenny Awards nominees are:

Outstanding Orchestral Performance

Eden Jr/Sr High School, Catch Me If You Can

Lewiston Porter High School, Into the Woods

Pioneer Central School, Mary Poppins

West Seneca West Senior High School, Anything Goes

 

Outstanding Technical Design

Lewiston Porter High School, Into the Woods

Pioneer Central School, Mary Poppins

Starpoint High School, Mary Poppins

Tonawanda High School, Jekyll & Hyde

 

Outstanding Choral Performance

Lewiston Porter High School, Into the Woods

St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Starpoint High School, Mary Poppins

West Seneca West Senior High School, Anything Goes

 

Outstanding Scenic Design

Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts, Chicago

Dunkirk High School, Little Shop of Horrors

Starpoint High School, Mary Poppins

Tonawanda High School, Jekyll & Hyde

 

Outstanding Dramatic Performance

Eden Jr/Sr High School, Catch Me If You Can

St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Starpoint High School, Mary Poppins

Tonawanda High School, Jekyll & Hyde

 

Outstanding Costume Design

Dunkirk High School, Little Shop of Horrors

Eden Jr./Sr. High School, Catch Me If You Can

Forestville Central School, Disney’s Beauty & the Beast

Starpoint High School, Mary Poppins

 

Outstanding Dance Performance

Eden Jr./Sr. High School, Catch Me If You Can

St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Starpoint High School, Mary Poppins

West Seneca West Senior High School, Anything Goes

 

Show Stopper

“The Bells of Notre Dame,” St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

“We Both Reached for the Gun,” Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts, Chicago

“Don’t Break the Rules,” Eden Jr./Sr. High School, Catch me If You Can

“Step In Time,” Starpoint High School, Mary Poppins

 

The Blossom Cohan Award

Honors a performer who “blossoms” in a role:

Jake Grear as Robertson Ay in Starpoint High School’s Mary Poppins

Luke Kaicher as Lefou in Forestville Central School’s Disney’s Beauty & the Beast

Audrey Kurdziel as Hunyak in Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Art’s Chicago

Emily Kuster as Carol Strong in Eden Jr./Sr. High School’s Catch Me If You Can

 

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble

Audrey 2 (puppeteer & voice), Dunkirk High School, Little Shop of Horrors

Jane & Michael Banks, Pioneer Central School, Mary Poppins

“No One Is Alone,” Lewiston Porter High School, Into the Woods

Statues and Gargoyles, St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

 

Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role

Lauren Andrews as Jack’s Mother, Lewiston Porter High School, Into the Woods

Alexis Brown as Matron Mama Morton, Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts, Chicago

Maggie Geiger as Mrs. Banks, Pioneer Central School, Mary Poppins

Magdalene Lord as Mrs. Banks, Starpoint High School, Mary Poppins

 

Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role

Frederick Caso as Jack, Lewiston Porter High School, Into the Woods

Caleb Gould as Carl Hanratty, Eden Jr./Sr. High School, Catch Me If You Can

Daniel Lord as Mr. Banks, Starpoint High School, Mary Poppins

Adam Rakiecki as Frank Abagnale Sr., Eden Jr./Sr. High School, Catch Me If You Can

 

Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role

Emily Kuhn as Lucy, Tonawanda High School, Jekyll & Hyde

Corinne McLoughlin as Roxie Hart, Buffalo Academy for the Visual & Performing Arts, Chicago

Haileigh Pawlak as Audrey, Dunkirk High School, Little Shop of Horrors

Penelope Sergi as Reno Sweeney, West Seneca West Senior High School, Anything Goes

 

Outstanding Actor in a Leading Role

Liam Allen as Quasimodo, St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Merrick Allen as Frank Abagnale Jr, Eden Jr./Sr. High School, Catch Me If You Can

Christopher Palumbo as Bert, Starpoint High School, Mary Poppins

Benjamin Thurston as Jekyll/Hyde, Tonawanda High School, Jekyll & Hyde

Ceremony tickets are available now through a finalist school for $8.00 presale. Tickets will go on sale to the public on Saturday, April 28 at 10:00 am and may be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com, by phone at 1-800-745-3000, or in person at Shea’s Box Office, 650 Main Street. The day of the ceremony, tickets may be purchased for $10.00.

For information on the Kenny Award Program, visit KennyAwards.weebly.com or contact Shea’s Education Coordinator Holly Grant at (716) 829-1171 or hgrant@sheas.org.