Hand-in-hand, waiting anxiously inside B116 on April 30, the EHS drama club students and faculty clicked on Fox 2 News to hear the nominations for this year’s Ken Page Awards.
The awards, according to the official website, aim to recognize outstanding student and school theater performances around the St. Louis region. This year, EHS received nominations in six categories for their spring musical “9 to 5.”
EHS has been nominated for awards before, but what makes this time stand out from the rest is that, for the first time in the history of the ceremony, three students from the same school have been nominated in the same category.
These students are seniors Grace Cook, Ella Carter and Makenzie Tarr, each nominated for Outstanding Leading Actress.
“They put all our names on the board and we were like ‘Oh my gosh’ and then our school also got nominated for a few other things too, which was super cool,” Cook said.
The other nominations include director Ashley Melton for Outstanding Ensemble, Jonah Sheckler for Outstanding Technical Execution, Cathy Vano for Outstanding Pit Orchestra, Jen Blum Tatara for Outstanding Costume Design and Emily Ottwein for Outstanding Music Direction.
Though the faculty members’ names are on the official nomination, it’s the students who are being recognized for their hard work and would receive the award if they win, according to senior Stage Manager Atticus Ball.
According to Melton, the nomination process begins with her registering the school to the awards ceremony and providing general information.
“We have to sign up for the Ken Page awards as a participating school, and then they get a list of information from me like our budget, how many adults we have working on the production, how much money we’re spending in each category,” Melton said.
A panel of judges attends one of each registered school’s performances, and use that showcase to make their final suggestions and nominations.
“We give them our show dates, and they have like 20 different adjudicators that are going to every school that is participating and watching their shows,” Melton said. “We have to reserve tickets for them, and they show up and we try to keep it hush hush. We don’t talk to the kids about when they’re coming … so that it doesn’t shape [the performance] or throw them off.”
If one of the three girls wins Outstanding Leading Actress, she and the Outstanding Leading Actor winner will get the opportunity to travel to New York City for a theater intensive, according to the KPA’s website.
The awards ceremony is scheduled for May 28 at The Fabulous Fox, and each member of Drama club is invited to attend and cheer on their classmates.
Senior Liv Warner and junior Mark Hill, though not nominated, will get a special opportunity at the show.
Each year, the director chooses two students to perform in the opening number that starts the show. Warner and Hill were selected, and will join other performers in creating a sort of “pre-show.”
“Each school that was adjudicated for the awards has the option to send two students to perform in the opening number, and it’s really cool because it’s this huge group of students from all the schools,” Warner said. “[Melton] sent me and Mark an email just saying ‘Hey, I’d like you guys to do this,’ and I obviously was super excited.”
The two have already begun rehearsals with the other performers, with the final product being a dance number to open up the ceremony and start some of the excitement.
“We had our first rehearsal last Saturday, and it’s a dance number with a song and dance,” Warner said. “We were there for around 8 hours, just singing and dancing. It was a lot of fun, there was a lot going on but the dance is super fun and we get to open the whole awards ceremony at the Fox, so I’m really excited to go and perform on the Fox stage again.”