Diamond Awards Ceremony
DATE: Sunday, May 4, 4pm
LOCATION: Baum Walker Hall at Walton Arts Center
ABOUT:
Modeled after Broadway’s Tony Awards®, Walton Arts Center’s Diamond Awards recognizes achievement and excellence in musical theater among local high school students. The Diamond Awards celebrate the power of the arts in education and motivate support for and interest in high school musicals.
Ten high school theater programs that produced full-length musicals are participating in the inaugural Diamond Awards. Industry professionals are in the process now of adjudicating students’ performances in their high school musicals. The schools and their qualifying musical productions are:
- Alma High School - Newsies
- Arkansas Arts Academy – Alice By Heart
- Bentonville High School – SpongeBob SquarePants the Musical
- Bentonville West High School – The Addams Family School Edition
- Clarksville High School – Matilda the Musical
- Farmington High School – The Addams Family
- Fayetteville High School - Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella
- Fort Smith Southside/Northside High School – Tuck Everlasting
- Siloam Springs High School – Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella
- Van Buren High School – The Lightning Thief
The showcase will feature performances by cast members from the productions, and awards will be presented for best actor, actress, supporting performers and ensemble performance. A Sparkle Award recognizing an outstanding educator will also be presented during the ceremony.
The Diamond Awards qualify the best actress and actor winners to receive training from Broadway professionals and compete alongside nominees from 54 other regional high school musical theater awards competitions in New York City at the Broadway League Foundation’s National High School Musical Theatre Awards®, “The Jimmy Awards®" this summer. Walton Arts Center will cover the cost of the trip for the two Diamond Awards winners.