Interview: Jackson Chase, winner of the 2022 Applause Awards at the Dr. Phillips Center

What happens when you take nearly 300 students representing 52 productions from 33 high schools from across Central Florida and put them onstage at Orlando's Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts? You get the Applause Awards - the annual ceremony, modeled after the Tony Awards which features performances from the winners of "Outstanding Musical" and culminates in the selection of two overall winners who advance to the High School Musical Theatre Awards in New York City (also known as The Jimmy Awards). One of last years winners, Jackson Chase, sat down with me to talk about his experience during the 2022 awards ceremony, his adventure in New York at the Jimmy Awards, and to share advice for all those students hoping for a similar experience this year.

Joseph Harrison: Thanks so much, Jackson, for taking time to chat. To get started, would love to hear about how you got started in the theatre.

Jackson Chase: It's really funny, my mom is a drama teacher, and my dad is a chorus teacher. So, in my family, the theater gene runs strong. I'm in high school right now and they are my teachers. The Orlando community is so good about giving young performers who really want to perform opportunities. I kind of got my start at the Orlando Repertory Theatre. So that's the place where it all started for me. I met a lot of my friends there, who I got to see at the Applause Awards last year. So that's where my love for theater started. I got to do their Youth Academy productions and their summer stock productions.

How young were you when you got started?

I think, technically, my first show was IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE when I was an infant, but the first real time was during summer camp when I was in first grade, then second and third, and that's when I really started to perform. Even just small week-long camps doing stuff like SEUSSICAL Jr. and like stuff like that.

Tell us a little bit about your journey to the Applause Awards last year.

The Applause Awards are through the Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando, Florida, and covers high school productions across Central Florida. You have to perform a musical, and then you sign up to get that musical judged and adjudicated. So, my high school did SOMETHING ROTTEN! last year, and I played Nick Bottom, and we performed that musical, and we got it adjudicated and got nominated for a bunch of awards, which is really awesome. And then, in May, they announced the winners of the awards. So, tons of nominations go out across a bunch of high school theaters, and then they pick the winners. I was nominated for outstanding lead performer. And I won that award along with 29 other people and one other person from my school. And so then we get to perform in the Applause Awards. They do these really cool medleys of all the lead performers. I got dressed up in my Nick Bottom costume, and I sang with Sky Masterson from GUYS AND DOLLS and Mrs. Potts from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. It's just a weird, funny array of characters together.

I've seen clips from the Jimmys when they do that strange mash up of characters that you would never imagine together, like Sweeney Todd singing with Shrek.

Yes! They do a really good job of making the transitions really clever.

So how did you find out you had won?

They let everyone know they would release a press release on a specific day. So, we all gathered in the chorus room, and we're all waiting, and our teachers let us know we were winners. And then once the winners are selected, then you go to the Applause Awards performance. It's two weeks of rehearsing these medleys and group numbers, and during the Applause Awards it is technically a competition to see who goes to the Jimmy Awards in New York. And I say technically, because if you think about it as a competition, you're not going to have nearly as much fun as if you just think about it as time to hang out with your friends.

So the awards are selected. And then what's revealed at the end of the Applause Awards is who gets to go to New York for the Jimmys?

Exactly. Every school gets nominations and winners, and then they bring all the winners together, and it's like a like a competition for the winners to see who will be the one male representative and one female representative. But it's really a celebration of all the winners. They also pick Best Musical, and SOMETHING ROTTEN! was selected along with four others, so we got to bring our whole cast, and we got to perform a group number from the show, which was so awesome.

So last year you go to the Applause Awards in May and you get selected to go to the Jimmys. How much time did you have in-between?

I went right there a few weeks later. The turnaround is crazy. I did the Applause Awards and won with my fellow winner Samantha. That night we went to a banquet with all the donors, and I got home at midnight, and then even though I was exhausted from this two-week journey, I was back the next day at 8 am at the Dr. Phillips Center to film all the stuff I needed to send to the Jimmy Awards. And then I stayed home for two weeks to make sure that I didn't get sick, because COVID was a really big thing, and then I flew off to New York.

Let's talk a little about the Jimmys. What was that experience like?

I say this with such gratefulness, but it was the most exhausting thing I have ever done in such an awesome way. We had to be at rehearsal by 9AM, and leave rehearsal at 9PM, all day going strong, rehearsing for all this stuff. And the COVID aspect was so strange. You had to get tested when you got there. And then every two days they tested, and then they found someone with COVID. So, we never knew if that day was going to be our last chance to be there. We had to really be in the moment and grateful. Every time they did a test, more and more people left. It was so scary. We got free tickets to see MOULIN ROUGE! but they did a test before we left for the show, and there were kids dressed up and ready who weren't able to go see the show because they tested positive, which was so sad. It was such a rewarding experience, but it was so much work. They treat you like professionals in the industry, and they work you to the bone, but it was so exciting and so exhausting.

So, you're doing a mix of things. You're rehearsing for your performance piece. But you're also in master classes as well?

Yes. The Jimmys does an opening and a closing number. We learn the singing for those, and then the dancing for those and then you're either split up into the performance medleys or group numbers. Last year they had a group number that was a tribute to Steven Sondheim and Schubert, and then I was in a group number that was focused on female composers. So, you rehearse for those as well and additionally, you are in private voice lessons with really cool professionals in the industry. You audition with a solo and they pick the people that get to perform their solos for everyone, and then they pick the winners of the Jimmys from that group.

Could the solos be anything, or did it have to be the song or role that you won for previously in your local awards?

It was not related to the role that you were selected for, but they did have a specific list that you had to choose from, and then you could submit appeals if you wanted. I chose from the list. I worked with my voice, teacher, Lauren Langa. She's the greatest. I worked with her and picked some songs.

Which one did you end up auditioning with?

I did "This is Not Over Yet" from PARADE.

Such a great song!

Yeah, and the winner, Nicholas Barron, he sang the same song. He is so incredibly talented and such a kind human being. So, if anyone had to get it, I'm so happy it was him.

So, you do all that work. You go through the classes and voice lessons. You get to see some shows and then it all culminates in a performance with those group numbers and the opening/closing and the solos?

On a Broadway stage, which is like mind blowing, of course.

And then they pick two winners?

Yeah. They bring in Bernie Telsey and Tara Rubin and they also had Montego Glover on the judges panel. The performance is on Monday and on Sunday those judges watched all 92 solos and picked 16 semi-finalists. And then the semi-finalists are announced at the Jimmys on Monday night, and then the finalists are announced, and then the eight finalists all sing their solos for the audience, and then the judges decide based on that performance who the winners are going to be.

So, what have you been up to since then? Will you be part of the Applause Awards this year, too?

The Applause Awards is only for musicals, and normally we do a fall play and a spring musical. But this year we did fall musical and a spring musical. We did INTO THE WOODS in the fall I was the Baker, and I got nominated. Right now, we're doing BIG FISH and I am playing Edward Bloom. We haven't gotten adjudicated, though, because it hasn't happened yet.

If you do get the chance to do the Applause Awards again, how would you think about it differently?

I honestly don't think that I will think about it differently. I went in last year just so happy to spend two weeks of my summer with some of my closest friends that I don't normally get to see, because we're always busy. I was just there to have fun. So, I think that's my goal this year, too. Do I want to go again? Of course, that would be amazing. But anyone that goes is going to be deserving.

What advice would you have for someone who is participating in their first Applause Awards?

I think the most important thing is to cherish the moment and have fun. If you're so worried about the competition aspect then you're not going to have fun. It is just amazing to get to share the stage with these people, and to get to perform on the big Walt Disney stage. Also, just be yourself - they just want to see who you are as a person, who you are as an individual. If you are lucky enough to win this year, just go and have fun and don't worry about the competition

What's next for you? Do you know yet where you are going after graduation?

I applied to a bunch of BFA musical theater programs and I was lucky to get accepted or wait listed at all but one program, which is insane. So right now, I'm just really working out the financials of everything and figuring out how I can afford it, because college is ridiculously expensive, especially for theater. It's just wild, but I will be getting a BFA in Musical Theater somewhere, most likely out of state.

To close, would love to do a speed round of questions to get to know you a bit better. First question - Favorite role you have ever played?

Edward Bloom.

Dream role you'd like to play one day?

I think William Barfee in SPELLING BEE but also Katurian in THE PILLOWMAN. I love that play so much.

Favorite thing about performing on stage in the musical?

I love the character work. I just eat it up. Sitting at the table with a pen and paper, and thinking "What am I feeling in this moment. What's my objective? What am I?" Uta Hagen's nine questions. I love going at it.

Best/most memorable production you've seen in the theater?

I saw FUN HOME on Broadway. I saw it the second-to-last performance and they brought back the whole original cast. I was in the second row, and I just sobbed my eyes out. It was incredible.

Favorite theatrical composer?

Miller and Tysen. They wrote TUCK EVERLASTING and THE BURNT PART BOYS which is not very well known, but I love that musical. We were going to do TUCK EVERLASTING my sophomore year but then COVID hit and we couldn't do the musical. So, it's still on the list. I'd love to be Miles Tuck one day.

If you could meet one Broadway star living or dead, who would it be?

I have a really nerdy answer. Does Leonard Bernstein count? Because I think WEST SIDE STORY is the greatest score of all time. Hands down.

Finally, what is the best advice you've ever been given?

The 2023 Applause Awards will be held on June 3rd at 7:00 PM in the Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. To learn more about the Applause Awards or to purchase tickets visit https://www.drphillipscenter.org/events/tickets/2023/applause-awards/ or call the Bill & Mary Darden Box Office at 407.358.6603. Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is located at 445 South Magnolia Avenue, Orlando, FL 32801

All photos provided by Dr. Phillips Center

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