3/29/2024
Education and Outreach
For the past decade, The Smith Center for the Performing has sent two student-actors year to New York City each year, to represent Nevada at the prestigious National High School Musical Theatre Awards, better known as the Jimmy Awards.
Now, The Smith Center has launched a new education program that could potentially send an additional local student to the Big Apple for the Jimmys in June.
In January, Southern Nevada high school students were invited to apply for The Smith Center’s first-ever Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards Student Reporter Program. Eight students were selected based on samples of their writing and a recommendation from a teacher.
On March 2, those students spent the day at The Smith Center, where they received instruction and advice about journalism – particularly arts and entertainment coverage – from a group of professionals.
Ann-Marie Pereth, artistic director for local theater company A Public Fit, got the five-hour workshop started, providing an inside look at the work that goes into staging a theater production, the impact a media review can have – positive and negative – on a show, and more.
Pereth was joined by local actor Marcus Weiss, who helped get the day off to an energetic start with a series of focusing and freeing exercises derived through his years in the theater world.
Next up: a parade of distinguished local journalists – Christopher Lawrence, the Review-Journal’s film and TV critic; Melinda Sheckells, a writer and editor whose work can be found in The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard magazine, among other outlets; and Amber Sampson, a staff writer at Las Vegas Weekly.
That trio explained how they broke into the business and relayed some of their most interesting experiences since, advising the students on the do’s and don’ts of arts criticism and the best methods for conducting interviews, and paying special attention to the way entertainment journalism has evolved from a print- and TV-focused medium to one that relies heavily on social media in the modern age.
“I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the workshop,” Kinsley Priebe, an 11th grader at Green Valley High, said afterward. “I could tell that the first two presenters were really passionate about what they were telling us, and they were doing it in such a way that I was intrigued the entire time from their characters, subject material and examples. I felt the same way about the journalists. It was so insightful to be able to meet them all and place the puzzle pieces together from what they shared with us.”
Summer Gillam, a 10th grader at Coronado High, said her biggest takeaways were “to always show your personality in your interviews” and, when it comes to reviewing theater, “At the end of the day, it’s your opinion and your point of view, so show it.”
From here, the students will attend and review one high school musical theater performance, along with one additional piece related to arts, culture or education. Those submissions will be scored by a team of adjudicators, with the student who receives the highest cumulative score named Outstanding Student Reporter for the 2024 Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards.
That student will then be invited to attend and report on that May 12 event, set for Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center, and will be eligible to compete for a slot at the Jimmy Awards.
“The Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards have always been an important part of our work at The Smith Center, and we’re extremely excited to add this Student Reporter Program,” said Melanie Jupp, director of education and outreach at The Smith Center. “Journalism in general, and arts criticism in particular, are essential components of true cultural discourse, and we’re pleased at the enthusiasm shown by our first batch of student participants. We’re looking forward to seeing the program grow from here in future years.”