Winning a Paper Mill Playhouse “Rising Star” award is the prestigious achievement in musical theater productions by New Jersey high schools. This year, 115 schools participated in the competition, and Hoboken High School student Colleen Kirk won the Rising Star Award for Best Actress and Manny Medina won for Best Supporting Actor.
The Playhouse, located in Millburn, N.J., cited them for their performances in the recent production of Ragtime: The Musical. The Tony-like awards were handed out by presenters wearing tuxedos and elegant dresses at a lavish sold-out awards ceremony Tuesday night in Millburn.
Like a dream
Even though her feet were firmly planted on the ground, Kirk, a junior, said she felt as if she was floating as she glided across the stage to receive the best actress award from Paper Mill’s CEO, Michael Gennaro.
Kirk addressed the packed house, her voice cracking with emotion and her hands trembling with excitement. She thanked her parents, Jim and Barbara Kirk, for their support, and the play’s director Paula Ohaus for helping her develop as an actress and performer.
“It was like a dream up there,” said Kirk after the ceremony. “The whole experience is completely overwhelming. It’s such an incredible honor.”
Ragtime is an epic ensemble portrait of America in the early 1900s. The powerful musical portrays a tumultuous time in our country’s history that yielded a cultural and musical explosion. It is a complicated ensemble piece with nearly 50 players, but there are 34 separate musical numbers, each of which are choreographed, according Ohaus.
,br> Kirk said later that “Mother,” her character, gave her a rich tapestry to work with. “She was such an interesting character with so many different layers,” she said. In the play, “Mother” begins as the submissive wife of an overbearing husband who rules the house with an iron fist. But when her husband, an adventurer, leaves home to explore the North Pole, Mother undergoes many changes.
Kirk poignantly and sympathetically conveyed Mother’s moral evolution as character that learns that there is monumental difference between doing what is proper and doing what is right.
“She’s someone who goes through a transformation, who in the end discovers who she really is,” Kirk said. Kirk has big plans for the future. This July, she has been cast to film the reality competition television program “Girls vs. Boys” for the Noggin Network on cable. As for next year she is already prodding Ohaus on which musical she should pick for next year. Kirk thinks Funny Girl might be a good selection.
Hard work pays off
Medina, a senior, said he will be graduating full with great memories of the drama program. Ragtime was the second spring musical that Medina participated in at Hoboken High School. Two years ago he was in West Side Story.
Medina said that the program, especially under Ohaus’ tutelage, has been “life-changing.”
“For everyone that has been involved in this production, it’s been a very special experience,” he said. Medina won the Rising Star award for best actor in a supporting role for his portrayal of “Younger Brother.” Medina effectively showed the character’s maturing from a directionless and difficult youth into man driven by focus and purpose.
,br> “He’s someone that goes from not having any meaning in his life, to all of the sudden finding something worth fighting for,” said Medina.
He added that this award would not have been possible without the support of his mother, G.G. Medina, whom he described as his “first acting teacher.” His proud mother, who was beaming ear to ear Tuesday night, said that she couldn’t be happier with her son’s award and performance.
“He has such a great spirit about him,” said G.G. “He worked so hard for this and has really earned this award.” Medina has a busy summer ahead of him. Every Rising Star nominee is invited to the Summer Musical Theatre Conservatory at the Paper Mill Playhouse. This five-week program of rigorous study will teach him to enhance his individual performance potential while also developing a broad base of theater experience and knowledge. He has also been signed to the independent record label, One World, to record pop and hip-hop music. This summer he hopes to perform at nightclubs in the tri-state area. Next summer he will study musical theater at Five Towns College on Long Island.
The big time
Paper Mill Playhouse holds the Rising Star Award Ceremony every June.
According to Paper Mill’s Director of Education Susan Speidel, the evaluation process began last October when they recruited more than sixty evaluators to judge the high school’s spring musicals. The evaluators attended the musicals from February through April.
“You are the best and brightest there are,” said Speidel at the awards ceremony, “and proof that art does add an important dimension to all our lives.”
The Paper Mill Playhouse Student Training and Artistic Recognition (STAR) program has been a fertile place for the discovery of talent and has been used as a springboard to Broadway and movies for numerous past nominees and winners. Former Paper Mill Rising Star Award winner for best actress and two-time Tony nominee Laura Benanti starred in the Broadway productions of The Sound of Music, Into the Woods and Swing! On the big screen, actress Anne Hathaway, who was a Rising Star nominee for best actress, co-starred with Julie Andrews in the 2001 film The Princess Diaries, which grossed $107 million at the box office. But one big difference between Colleen Kirk and Hathaway is that Kirk actually won the award.
History of success
Since the Hoboken High School theater program was reformed in 1997, the students have performed The Wiz, Fiddler on the Roof, Once on This Island, Dreamgirls, To Kill a Mocking Bird and On with the Show in front of sold-out audiences. Once on this Island won the award from Paper Mill Playhouse for Best High School Musical in 1999. HHS had entered its first Paper Mill Playhouse competition with the production of Fiddler on the Roof in 1998 and was nominated in three categories. Reny Rosado, who played Tevye, was nominated for Best Actor and received a scholarship to attend an intensive summer workshop at Paper Mill.
In the fall of 1999, Hoboken High became part the “Adopt-a-School Program” sponsored by the Paper Mill Playhouse’s Educational Department. The following spring of 2000, Dreamgirls received nominations for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Graphics. Malachy Orozco won the Best Supporting Actor category.
Two years ago, West Side Story received 13 Paper Mill Playhouse nominations including Best Musical, Best Direction, Best Choreography and Best Set Design. The school received more nominations than any other school in the state.