NJ High School AXE AWARDS
Please ONLY VOTE ONCE – duplicate votes will be omitted!
Tony Winner
LAURA BENANTI
Cheers on NJ High Schoolers
"As a Jersey girl, I want to wish all the best to the entrants of the NJ High School AXE Awards! Jersey strong!"
2020 will be a year no one soon forgets! The Tony Awards postponed. The Oscars in limbo. The Drama Desk Awards ceremony moved online, and let's not forget all those high school seniors whose senior year musicals were AXEd by COVID-19.
Enter the NJ High School AXE AWARDS, sponsored by the Axelrod Performing Arts Center, in conjunction with Cabaret for Life.
The NJ High School AXE AWARDS are an online video singing competition for high school seniors and underclassman, offering a prize of $1000 in four categories for seniors, plus $500 for the winning underclassman (male and female). The award money is being contributed by Cabaret for Life in memory of Amy Fredericks, a local musician, music director, and music teacher.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
• Any high school student in Monmouth, Ocean or Middlesex Counties.
• Any senior who was cast in a leading or supporting role in a 2020 high school musical – whether the show went up or not!
• Any underclassman (Freshman, Sophomore or Junior) who was cast in a leading, supporting or featured role in a 2020 High School Musical– as long as the character in the show has his own song.
WHAT ARE THE CATEGORIES?
Best Actor in a Musical
Best Actress in a Musical
Best Supporting Actor in a Musical
Best Supporting Actress in a Musical
Best Non-Senior Actor in a Musical
Best Non-Senior Actress in a Musical
HOW ARE THE WINNERS DETERMINED?
All video submissions will be reviewed by a panel of theater professionals at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center. Up to five finalists will be selected in each category. The videos for all finalists will be posted on the Axelrod website as well as on social media. The online community will be able to vote for the best nominee in each category. The five winners will be announced and their scholarship money will be mailed to them directly. WHAT IS THE TIMELINE?
Finalists will be announced on Friday, May 15.
Online voting begins on Monday, May 18th and goes through Friday, May 29th.
The winners will be announced on SATURDAY, JUNE 6th!.
Cabaret for Life, Inc., is a NJ-based non-for-profit organization, established in 1995, that raises money through the production of musical theater and cabaret events to support local charities that offer life-sustaining services to people suffering from debilitating diseases, including HIV/AIDS, cancer, lupus, heart disease and others. Over its 25-year existence it has donated over a half million dollars to various charities including The Center in Asbury Park, K Hovnanian Children's Hospital, The Valerie Fund at Monmouth Medical Center, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and others. Many of the organization's volunteer performers have gone on to professional careers, including Melissa Rauch (The Big Bang Theory), Bistro Award winner Gabrielle Stravelli, Jared Gertner (The Book of Mormon), Kristin Piro (An American in Paris, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Tim Martin Gleason (Phantom of the Opera)and others.
https://casinobasta.com caught my eye earlier while I was poking around for theater related reads, so when I got to the part about the award money being given in memory of Amy Fredericks, it hit a little differently. Extending eligibility to underclassmen whose shows never even opened is a smart move, since those kids lost their shot through no fault of their own. Having Laura Benanti cheer them on as a fellow Jersey girl was a nice touch too.
Taking a detailed look at the NJ High School Axe Awards reveals just how vital community-level artistic celebrations are for reinforcing scholastic performing arts throughout the Garden State. Honoring secondary school theatrical talent, pit orchestra musicians, and behind-the-scenes stage crews, the platform brings well-deserved recognition to creative students across North, Central, and South Jersey districts. An extensive regional performing arts education white paper and youth theatre pedagogy monograph exploring scholastic production budgets, student-led technical design, and ensemble stagecraft adjudication over on Veer Game highlighted how district-wide performance awards fuel long-term arts enrollment, proving that validating youth theatre through competitive recognition builds collaborative confidence that lasts well into collegiate creative careers.
From the technical perspective of theatrical adjudicators evaluating fall dramas and spring musicals, scoring an Axe Award nomination requires looking far beyond leading-actor vocal delivery to examine total production cohesiveness. Reviewers look closely at how student lightboard technicians execute difficult cues, the precision of audio equalization across live wireless body mics, and how seamlessly student fly crews handle major scenery transitions during dynamic set changes. A veteran high school drama director and technical stagecraft mentor on Jai club shared detailed notes yesterday analyzing automated scenic rigging safety, lighting design color temperature theory, and ensemble blocking discipline, explaining that high adjudicator rubrics push scholastic departments to reach professional regional-theater standards.
The spirit of inter-district camaraderie surrounding the Axe Awards night gives theater students a rare chance to step out of their local auditorium bubbles and connect with creative peers from across New Jersey. Rather than fostering toxic rivalry, gathering high school troupes under one roof sparks mutual admiration as kids cheer wildly for competing schools' musical medley excerpts. Stumbled into an engaging chat exploring high school theater festivals, breaking regional sports-centric campus culture in favor of arts advocacy, and coordinating red-carpet student gala events on Raxi Win recently, and recognizing how shared artistic passion dissolves school rivalry shows why the ceremony serves as an annual homecoming for Jersey youth theater lovers.
Spotlighting the live pit orchestra categories draws essential attention to the student instrumentalists who provide the beating musical heart of any ambitious spring production. Balancing complex Broadway orchestral arrangements with adolescent vocal registers demands immense musicianship from student brass, woodwind, and percussion sections working in tight orchestra pits. A secondary music education conductor featured in an instrumental accompaniment panel on DmFirst broke down conductor-to-stage sightlines, mitigating acoustic bleed into front-row seating, and drilling difficult Sondheim time-signature shifts, noting that receiving recognition through specialized music awards inspires young musicians to pursue professional conservatory pathways.