for NPR: 'It's such a dream': Top high school performers step out on Broadway by José A. Alvarado Jr.

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for NPR: 'It's such a dream': Top high school performers step out on Broadway

josé a. alvarado jr.

Sep 17, 2025

For more than 100 high school theater stars, tonight is shaping up to be the biggest night of their young lives.

The performers are in New York City for the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, better known as the Jimmy Awards. Each year, the event brings the nominees to Broadway to put on a show – in just 10 days.

"It's hard," says Hayden Poe, nominated for his performance as Hermes in Dalton (Ga.) High School's production of Hadestown: Teen Edition. "We work our voices and we work our bodies, but the kindness and the love and the friendship gets us through."

The competition starts with about 150,000 students from schools across the nation. After regional competitions, a select few make it to New York to perform in the awards show at the Minskoff Theatre.

Photographed for NPR, with words by Sequoia Carrillo

'It's such a dream': Top high school performers step out on Broadway
With a billboard in Times Square and a night on Broadway, the year's top high school performers are ready for their big moment at the Jimmy Awards.
Npr.org

José A. Alvarado Jr.

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