Frank DiLella and Marla Louissaint to Co-Host 2019 Roger Rees Awards

The Broadway Education Alliance is pleased to announce that Emmy Award-winning NY1 host Frank DiLella and the 2015 Jimmy Award-winner for Best Performance by an Actress Marla Louissaint will co-host the 2018-19 Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance. The ceremony will be held at the Professional Performing Arts School on Sunday, May 19, 2019.

Fifty students (25 men and 25 women) representing 40 high schools located throughout the Greater New York area will compete for the title of Best Actor and Best Actress in the Greater New York area before a panel of Broadway judges that include Jelani Alladin (Broadway Actor), Nancy Nagel Gibbs (Producer and General Manager, Wicked), Bob Martin (The Prom, co-book writer), Patricia Simon (Marymount Manhattan College) and Merri Sugarman (Tara Rubin Casting).

Prior to the talent showcase, students will participate in a theatre intensive on Saturday, May 18 that includes professional coaching in solo and ensemble performance led by industry professionals with extensive performance credits on Broadway, regional theatre and national tour, as well as teaching credentials at the college level. Acting Coaches are Tina Maria Casamento (Actress/Faculty Rider University Musical Theatre and Acting), Michelle Millard (CW Post/Long Island University), Sean McKnight (The Hybrid Agency), and Cynthia Thole (Fairleigh Dickinson University). Music Directors are Andy Einhorn (Carousel and Hello Dolly!), Isaac Harlan (Broadway Inspirational Voices), David Libby (Chasing Rainbows: The Road to Oz) and Christine Riley (Marymount Manhattan College). This team will select the Roger Rees Awards finalists who will perform a solo from his/her high school musical at the Roger Rees Awards talent showcase.

To be eligible to participate in the program a student must have performed a qualifying role in an officially licensed high school production of an eligible show during the 2018-2019 academic year. The Roger Rees Awards Best Actor and Best Actress-winners will represent the Greater New York region at The Broadway League Foundation's The Jimmy Awards (also known as the National High School Musical Theatre Awards) on June 24th at the Minskoff Theatre.

The Roger Rees Awards 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. 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."

The Broadway Education Alliance is the fiscal sponsor for The Roger Rees Awards for Excellence in Student Performance which is supported by Disney Theatricals, Camp Broadway LLC, Concord Theatricals, Harmony Helper, Rick Elice, Stacy Mindich, Music Theatre International, Nancy Nagel Gibbs and many other industry leaders working in/around Broadway. For more information about the program, visit www.rogerreesawards.com.

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