Middle Tennessee's growing high school theater scene was in the spotlight over the weekend as Lipscomb University's Department of Theatre - under the direction of dance professor Kari Smith and dean of the College of Entertainment and the Arts Mike Fernandez - hosted the third annual Nashville High School Musical Theatre Awards.
Melinda Doolittle, Nashville's favorite American Idol alumna, once again hosted the Saturday night awards gala at Lipscomb's Collins Alumni Auditorium, which followed an action-packed day of worshops, master classes and discussions featuring a plethora of theater professionals and academics.
Hillsboro High School's production of Godspell, directed by Will Butler, was named winner of the awards for Best Show and Best Direction. Brianna Middleton, from Ensworth High School's production of Aida, was named Best Actress, while Hillsboro's Ashton Harris won Best Actor for his performance in Godspell.
Lipscomb NMTA Theatre Scholarship winners were Kelsey Sanders from Cookeville High School and Luke Carver of Pope John Paul II High School.
Fernandez introduced Doolittle at the beginning of the awards gala, teasingly calling her a Lipscomb alumna in an affectionate nod to the school's neighborhood rival Belmont University. Doolittle's popularity among the high school students was readily apparent by the thundering ovation which greeted her initial onstage entrance.
In addition to Doolittle, Smith and Fernandez, awards presenters for the evening included Nashville Shakespeare Festival actor/director and Lipscomb theatre faculty member Santiago Sosa; Dove Award-winning recording artist and Grammy nominee Bonnie Keen; Lipscomb University theatre faculty member and technical director Andy Bleiler; Nashville theatre director, senior contributing editor to BroadwayWorld.com Nashville and founder/executive producer of The First Night Honors Jeffrey Ellis; Lipscomb dance faculty member and co-founder/choreographer for Foundation Dance Theatre Leigh Anne Ervin; Nettie Kraft, artistic director of Verge Theatre; Greg Greene, co-founder and managing director of Nashville's Blackbird Theater Company; Lipscomb University theatre education major Ann Marie Bagge, a 2016 First Night Most Promising Actor; and Steve Bianchi, marketing director for Nashville Repertory Theatre.
Among the night's big winners:
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