It's the season for high school musicals.

Schools across the Commonwealth are presenting their spring productions right now.

But for the first time, many of them are competing for a spot in the national spotlight.

Our Kelsey Starks has more on the first ever Capa Bradley Awards and tonight's Arts and Culture segment we call tapestry.

Okay, okay, okay.

See this?

Wow.

There is a lot of talent out there when it comes to high school musicals.

And that is exactly what the new Bradley Awards from the Kentucky Performing Arts are all about.

Nick Cavallo is the VP of education and Community at Kentucky Performing Arts, or Capa.

So tell us what these new brand new awards are all about.

That's right.

So the Capa Bradley Awards are a regional awards program of what we call the Jimmy Awards.

So I'll start by talking about the Jimmy Awards for a moment.

The Jimmy Awards are also known as the National High School Musical Theater Awards, and they are essentially the Tony Awards for High School Musical theater for our country.

So this is the highest honor and high school musical theater for young folks across the United States.

But since they have been founded since 2009, our region has actually not been represented.

So we're changing that at KPA.

We're really excited to be launching our regional awards program here in Kentucky and southern Indiana, called the K.P.

Bradley Awards, to celebrate our region's young artists.

That's amazing.

And, you know, spring musicals are underway right now.

So judging is underway.

What are these judges looking for?

And and how are you deciphering when it comes to you know, you've got schools with big budget productions and some smaller budget productions?

Absolutely.

So we have a team of about ten adjudicators who are all theater arts professionals in some way shape or form who are going out to our 16 participating schools and this year's program.

They're actually going to view the High School Musical and the high school auditorium or theater.

They have a set of rubrics for various categories.

They're watching the students, they're watching the technical elements of the show.

They're scoring them, and then they're also providing written feedback to the students and the educators as well, which is a huge asset for these schools to be getting that outside perspective.

And so we have a variety of schools that are represented in the program.

Like I said, 16 and some of them are magnet arts schools.

Some of them are schools or maybe their theater program is run by a teacher that just feels really passionate about it.

And we really celebrate that diversity of theater programs.

And we really want to adjudicate these schools where they are, understand what they're doing with the resources that they have, and the students talents are going to shine through no matter what that looks like for the schools.

So we're really excited to see these students and what they're capable of.

Yeah, that's so exciting.

And so the nominations will be announced in early May and then culminate with the the big ceremony on June 1st at the Kentucky Center.

And this is really like the Tony Awards.

It really is.

We really want to celebrate all of our nominees and early May when we announce the nominations, and then at the June 1st award ceremony, similar to the Tony Awards, you can expect us giving out those awards to the person that that wins in each category, but also some performances from these students.

We'll see performances from all the school cast that are nominated for Best Overall Musical, where we'll hear solo performances from our Best Actor and Actress nominees.

And then maybe my favorite part is the show will open and close with a showcase ensemble featuring two students from each school.

So all of the schools are going to see themselves represented up on the stage.

That's amazing.

Red carpet and all.

And so but they're getting a lot more than a trophy or an award.

The winners are going to go on to New York City to compete nationally.

But there's more than that, right?

Absolutely.

So the winners of our best Actor and Actress in a Leading Role category will be sent to New York, all expenses paid by KPA to participate in the Jimmy Awards, which, as he said, is not just an award ceremony.

It's actually over a weeklong experience of masterclasses, workshops with, I mean, the the stars of Broadway.

The students will often see their headshots put up in Times Square, and it's a really big deal for these students.

And they're there with other students and across the country who love the arts just as much as they do.

And we're really excited for Kentucky and Southern Indiana to have a spot on that national stage.

Yeah, what an incredible experience.

So what do schools have to do to get involved?

Maybe they didn't get involved yet this year, but for the future, how does schools get involved?

Absolutely.

So this is our first year.

We have 16 schools that are participating, and we certainly hope to grow that in the future.

This year we just worked with spring musicals, but we're hoping to expand that in the future as well.

So any school that's interested in being involved, if they do a high school musical, they can just go to Kentucky Performing arts.org, look up the KP Bradley Awards and reach out to us there, and we'll give them the rest of the information from their fantastic.

Thanks so much and I'm really excited about this.

The inaugural Capa Bradley Awards happened June 1st at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts.

Back to you.

Thank you.

Carl.

Say the Bradley Awards are a partnership with the Louisville Theatrical Association and named in honor of Bradley Broecker, whose work with LTA was instrumental in bringing touring Broadway shows to the Kentucky area.