This past Monday was the 71st Annual Theatre World Awards. It honors the 12 best debuts of the past year on and off-Broadway. This year's Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Chita Rivera (so appropriate as she played the original Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie, the show we worked so hard on this year).
The best part of this year's awards was that, as volunteer coordinator, I was able to enlist some of my former drama students, who are now in college, to help out. We all spent the day together catching up on the last few years, sharing the wonderful things they've been up to, and getting giddy over the talent that we'd be rubbing elbows with later that night.
Each student was given a winner or presenter to escort, and essentially babysit, during the evening. Brandon was assigned to Collin-Kelly Sordelet, the actor who made his Broadway debut in a show that we both loved so much despite it closing early, The Last Ship. It has such beautiful music! Sabrina was assigned to the lead who dances his way through An American in Paris, Robert Fairchild. He was a principal dancer in the New York City Ballet who has started singing for the first time. Sam was assigned to the boy who got his first Broadway role in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime before he graduated from college, Alex Sharp. He was plucked right from his classroom at Julliard and deserves every accolade he's getting. Hearing their excitement about the show and the people they got to meet was the highlight of the night for me.
The best part of this year's awards was that, as volunteer coordinator, I was able to enlist some of my former drama students, who are now in college, to help out. We all spent the day together catching up on the last few years, sharing the wonderful things they've been up to, and getting giddy over the talent that we'd be rubbing elbows with later that night.
Each student was given a winner or presenter to escort, and essentially babysit, during the evening. Brandon was assigned to Collin-Kelly Sordelet, the actor who made his Broadway debut in a show that we both loved so much despite it closing early, The Last Ship. It has such beautiful music! Sabrina was assigned to the lead who dances his way through An American in Paris, Robert Fairchild. He was a principal dancer in the New York City Ballet who has started singing for the first time. Sam was assigned to the boy who got his first Broadway role in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime before he graduated from college, Alex Sharp. He was plucked right from his classroom at Julliard and deserves every accolade he's getting. Hearing their excitement about the show and the people they got to meet was the highlight of the night for me.