Bloomington students bring award-winning theatre performances to Spotlight Showcase
Indigo Gabriel performs as Cat in the Hat in Kennedy Theatre Company's
fall production of "Seussical"
Jefferson and Kennedy high school students performed at the Hennepin Arts Spotlight Showcase June 9-10 at the State Theatre. The annual awards event caps off a year of award-winning shows and performances by Bloomington students, including one who earned a top individual honor.
Kennedy High School junior Indigo Gabriel was selected as one of 23 Spotlight Triple Threat winners. The statewide award recognizes students for exceptional skills in singing, dancing, acting, and leadership. Gabriel was part of Kennedy Theatre Company’s fall production of “Seussical,” which received 17 Spotlight Education honors in November.
The group of Kennedy students also received the Spotlight Community Engagement Award, honoring the work they did to engage elementary students in reading. During their run of "Seussical," high school students visited elementary schools as guest readers and collected hundreds of pounds of books to donate to VEAP, a non-profit agency serving low-income families and individuals in Bloomington, Edina, and Richfield.
Jefferson Theatre Company's spring production of "Mamma Mia!"
Jefferson Theatre Company performed a medley of songs from their spring production of “Mamma Mia!” The musical earned 30 Spotlight awards, including outstanding recognition in achievement in musical theatre, overall technical production, overall performance, ensemble performance, ensemble acting performance, ensemble vocal performance, ensemble dance performance, costume crew, run crew, overall technical team, sound crew, and light crew. The student orchestra earned honorable mention recognition.
Individual outstanding performance honors went to Tina Bagheri, Sam DeToffol, and Amelia Busse in their leading roles as Donna, Sam, and Tanya, respectively. Honorable mentions in a leading role were awarded to Lily Heisel, Ava Lawler and Aaron Willey as Sophie, Rosie and Harry, respectively.
Tina Bagheri and Aaron Willey performing in "Mamma Mia!" as Donna and Harry
Outstanding technical leadership awards went to Claire Kraynick, Juliet Klapak, Leo Catalano, and Abby Bowman. Evaluator shout-out recognition was given to Max Langeberg, Jonathan Gronvall, Jayden Benjamin, Jaired Munar, Holleigh Stockton, Hazel Collins and Miah Bican.
The Hennepin Arts Spotlight Education program is active in more than 100 high schools throughout Minnesota and works to enhance arts curricula through production assessments, workshops and access to quality theatre education.