KDSN RADIO News
Showcase lets Iowa high school performers shine on statewide stage
From the 2023 Showcase (DMPA photo)
Hundreds of Iowa high school theater students from dozens of schools are in central Iowa today, rehearsing on the big stage at the Des Moines Civic Center for tomorrow night’s final performance. The annual Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards Showcase is being hosted by Broadway actress Ryann Redmond.
“It’s lots of fun production numbers, lots of singing and dancing, and some classic musicals as well as some new pop rock musicals,” Redmond says, “so it’s going to be a wide gamut of a bunch of different things that I think the audiences will absolutely love.”
Organizers say the showcase celebrates the achievements of Iowa’s young musical theater artists, and creates visibility and support for high school musical theater programs.
“This is probably the high school students’ favorite time of year, just like it was mine when I was in high school, looking forward to just being around all those people that have the same mindset as you, the same level of theater that you do,” Redmond says, “and just getting all in the same room and sharing the same love for musical theater.”
The showcase is the flagship educational initiative of Des Moines Performing Arts, which reaches more than one-hundred schools and over five-thousand students across Iowa.
“It’s celebrating not only the students who are the performers, but everybody who was involved in putting these shows up,” Redmond says. “The directors, the technical crew behind the stage, the costume designers, the moms who helped out backstage and made the costumes and do the makeup, so it’s just really celebrating those people that have made that happen.”
Redmond, who recently played the first female Olaf in “Frozen” on Broadway, says two Iowa students will be singled out during the showcase for their abilities as so-called triple-threats.
“Two who have an absolute amazing skill set of singing, dancing and acting, that’s the triple threat,” Redmond says. “It’s that next step into hopefully becoming a Broadway performer, someone who can do all three of those things and is super talented.”
The two winners will represent Iowa at the National High School Musical Theatre Awards in New York City for ten days, culminating with the Jimmy Awards on June 24th at 6:30 PM at Broadway’s Minskoff Theatre.
The showcase will begin at 7 PM Thursday and it’ll be livestreamed online statewide through Iowa PBS.
