JIMMYS BLOG: Samuel Aubuchon- Arriving in NYC!

This year, a record 86 high school students from across America will participate in The Jimmy Awards, competing for Best Performance by an Actor and Actress as well as other honors and scholarships at the eleventh annual awards ceremony on Monday, June 24.

Jimmy Awards nominees will prepare for their debut on a Broadway stage during a nine-day professional training intensive with NYU Tisch School of the Arts' New Studio on Broadway faculty members plus other theatre professionals. Winners will be selected by a panel of industry experts. Student performers qualify to compete in the national program by winning top honors at regional high school musical theatre awards competitions presented by Broadway League member performing arts centers. Over 1,700 high schools and 100,000 students participate in these annual events.

BroadwayWorld is bringing you the inside scoop on this year's Jimmy Awards with student blogger Samuel Aubuchon- a nominee from Kansas City Starlight Theatre's Blue Star Awards. Earlier this year, he won the title of Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Terry Connor in Blue Springs High School's Side Show.

Read Samuel's second entry below and click here if you missed his first!

As I write this, we are wrapping up our first full day at the Tisch rehearsal spaces. Even though we have only known each other for 32 hours, it feels like nearly a lifetime as there has not been a single moment that we have not been surrounded by our fellow nominees. That said, we are all getting very close with one another and enjoying ourselves thoroughly.

Following our NYU Tisch check-in at the dormitories, the festivities kicked off with a party and quick introductions from every member of the staff. We learned quickly that saving our voices was key for the success of the week, and tried to control our verbal excitement as much as possible when striking up new friendships with fellow nominees, but to no avail. Our voices carried through the air like an unmic-ed Liza Minnelli performing for a full house. Eventually, binders were passed out to all 86 of us, and we eagerly flipped through our new music. Jumping directly into rehearsal for the opening number, our journey began.

Accompanied by music director Michael Moricz, we dove right to work, turning the little dots and lines in our binders into music. Michael is just one of the many industry professionals that we have the opportunity to work with this week, with Van Kaplan from the Pittsburgh CLO at the head of operations as Director. Our first morning was dazzled right off the bat with a dance call, led by choreographer Kiesha Lalama and overseen by Wayne Cilento, the LEGEND responsible for originating the role of Mike in "A Chorus Line" and for bringing the movement in "Wicked" to Broadway as choreographer.

Following our long and exhausting first day of nonstop rehearsal, we were separated into performance groups in which we will whip up a Broadway-quality number to be performed at the Minskoff Theatre on Monday night.

There is SO much happening, and words cannot describe how amazing the first day and a half have been. I can't wait to update soon with even more juicy details to come!