Road to the Jimmys, Episode 6: Inspiration Meets Collaboration at Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, NY | Broadway buzz

The Jimmy Awards 2023
(Photo: Tricia Baron)

If the Tony Awards are a testament to what’s currently happening on Broadway, the Jimmy Awards provide a forecast of Broadway’s future. Formerly known as the National High School Musical Theater Awards, the Jimmy Awards are an annual celebration of exceptional musical theater talent in America’s high schools, from Dallas to Des Moines, San Antonio to San Diego, Memphis to Minneapolis. This year’s Jimmy Awards will take place June 24 at the Minskoff Theater. Until there, The Broadway show will chronicle Road to the Jimmys, highlighting some of the regional competitions that send their most talented teens to New York each spring.

This week we meet Cindy Ripley, board member of Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, New York and co-chair of the organization’s education committee. “For young theater makers in our area, the Shea stage is their Broadway,” Ripley says. “When they get a chance to be on stage preparing for the Jimmy Awards, it’s the equivalent of a star high school football player trying to play at Highmark Stadium where the Buffalo Bills play.”

Students who participate in the Buffalo program train with theater professionals who volunteer their time to cultivate this rising generation of talent – ​​a mutually inspiring effort, Ripley says. “Everyone who has had anything to do with this program feels very honored to work with these kids because the kids give back to us more than we give them.” Ultimately, this spirit of generosity and collaboration is what keeps theater alive and thriving across the country. “The majority of them develop a lifelong love of theater,” Ripley says of her students, “and that builds our audience.”