All In A Day's Work – 2013 National HSMTA Introduction

Posted on June 24th, 2013

2013 DSM High School Musical Theatre Awards Best Actress and Actor, Dakota Ratliff and Cameron Wenrich

We will be featuring daily updates from the 2013 DSM High School Musical Theatre Awards Best Actor and Actress, Cameron Wenrich and Dakota Ratliff, beginning Wednesday, June 26^th. Dakota and Cameron will be sending in their updates about their journey in New York City before, during, and after the National High School Musical Theatre Awards. Check out the category “All in a Day’s Work” for all of their posts, which will be featured daily from June 26^th – July 1^st, and any previous posts.

How did they get to go to New York City and participate in the National HSMTA? Because Cameron won Best Actor and Dakota won Best Actress, they continue on to compete against other high school Best Actor and Actress winners across the country.

What is the National HSMTA? According to their blog, “The NHS Musical Theater Awards will focus national attention on the importance of theater arts education and heighten the profile of communities and school districts around the United States that provide musical theater study in their curriculum and offer student productions as part of their school activities programming. It will also recognize the regional professional theaters participating in this national awards presentation. Two winners from each local event will be eligible to participate in the New York finals competition.”

What will they do in New York City? Other than rehearsals for the actual awards show and their performance for the judges, they will be eating at the legendary Sardi’s restaurant then they will see Annie The Musical, and to top it off, a talkback with the cast following the show! Also, they will be coached 1 on 1 with industry professionals, and of course, perform in the 2013 National HSMTA!

When is the National HSMTA Show? The Awards are on Monday, July 1^st at 7:30pm at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway. The Tony®-nominated stars Laura Osnes (Cinderella) and Santino Fontana (the Prince) will be the evening’s hosts! 60 talented teens perform songs & medleys from the roles that won them top honors at their local musical theater awards competitions. In this one night only engagement on Broadway, the race is on for the “Jimmy Award” for Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance by an Actor. A panel of industry brass will score performers, winners will be chosen and college scholarships and other prizes will be announced live!

Want to check out more? Check out the Participating Theaters page on the NHSMTA website to learn more about each of the different programs across the country from New York to Texas to California. As the highlight videos and performance photos come in, they are posting them to their website as well!

Make sure you subscribe to/follow our blog to get updates as we post them! Just enter your email address to the right & don’t forget to confirm it via an email we’ll send to you.

We wish Cameron and Dakota the best of luck this year! We’re so excited for them, and can’t wait to see all of the experiences they will have!

-DSM Amanda