56 Greater New York High Schools to Participate in 13th Annual Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance

The Broadway Education Alliance has announced that fifty-six Greater New York area high schools will participate in The 13th Annual Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance to celebrate the importance of theater arts education and recognize outstanding youth performers. This recognition program is open to high schools located in Bronx, Kings (Brooklyn), Nassau, New York (Manhattan), Orange, Putnam, Queens, Richmond (Staten Island), Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester counties.

The 2022-2023 Roger Rees Awards Participating High School Roster

BRONX

Cardinal Spellman High School Fordham Preparatory School Riverdale Country School

KINGS (BROOKLYN)

Edward R. Murrow High School Poly Prep Country Day School

NASSAU

Chaminade High School Elmont Memorial High School Farmingdale High School Floral Park Memorial High School General Douglas MacArthur High School

Glen Cove High School Great Neck South High School Half Hollow Hills High School East Hempstead High School H. Frank Carey High School

Holy Trinity High School Jericho High School John L. Miller Great Neck N. HS Lawrence Woodmere Academy Lynbrook High School

Manhasset High School New Hyde Park Memorial HS Paul D. Schreiber High School Roslyn High School Sewanhaka High School

Wantagh High School W.T. Clarke High School

NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)

Columbia Grammar & Prep Sch Hunter College High School Léman Manhattan Prep Sch Professional Perf. Arts School Talent Unlimited High School

Trinity School Xavier High School

ORANGE

James I. O'Neill High School Newburgh Free Academy

PUTMAN

Carmel Central Schools

QUEENS

Frank Sinatra School of the Arts

ROCKLAND

Clarkstown High School North North Rockland High School Nyack High School Ramapo High School Suffern High School

SUFFOLK

Bay Shore Senior High School Hauppauge High School Huntington High School North Babylon High School Pierson Middle-High School West Babylon High School

WESTCHESTER

Archbishop Stepinac High School Blind Brook High School Pelham Memorial High School Pleasantville High School Rye Neck High School Sleepy Hollow High

School White Plains High School

The Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance Showcase will be held on Sunday, May 21 at 4:00pm at Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan (328 West 48th Street). Students will participate in master classes and coaching sessions with leading Broadway acting coaches, performing artists and music directors in preparation for the awards presentation. Recognitions will include New Faces|2023 Honors, celebrating excellence in solo performances and The Harmony Helper® Award for Excellence in Choral Group Performance. Additionally, two students who have performed eligible roles in a licensed high school production will be recognized for Outstanding Performance in a Musical and represent the Greater New York region at The National High School Musical Theatre Awards®, aka The Jimmy's®, which is presented by The Broadway League Foundation in June at the Minskoff Theatre.

The Broadway Education Alliance is the fiscal sponsor of The Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance with support from leading companies including Disney Theatrical Group, Acceptd, Harmony Helper, Music Theatre International, Playbill, Theatrical Rights Worldwide and Theatrely.com; educational institutions such as Marymount Manhattan, Rider University and Terry Knickerbocker Studios, as well as Rick Elice, Nancy Nagel Gibbs, Jerome Kane, Kimberly Akimbo and other industry leaders.

The Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance recognize the importance of theatre arts education and celebrate the exceptional life and career-long artistic excellence of Broadway's beloved actor/director, Roger Rees. Rees received the Olivier® and Tony® Awards for his performance in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, and Tony nominations for Indiscretions and as co-director of Peter and the Starcatcher. Throughout his life, he was a committed educator and generous mentor to young artists. Roger spent countless hours in rehearsals and classrooms coaching aspiring writers, actors and directors on character development, craft, collaboration and the vast cannon of theatrical works to be explored.

Playwright Rick Elice, Rees' partner of over 30 years, and author of "Finding Roger," said, "Rog would have liked this chance to educate and inspire young actors, to offer a guiding hand as so many were offered to him when he too was a kid with a dream." Rees passed away in July 2015 after a year-long battle with brain cancer. He was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in November 2015.

For more information about the program, visit www.rogerreesawards.com.