Saint Joseph theater department receives three Utah High School Musical Theater nominations

Doug Reinhart

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Clare Bruce, shown here in her role as Adelaide in ?Guys and Dolls,? has received a Utah High School Musical Theater nomination for Best Actress. She will compete April 27 at the Utah High School Musical Theater Awards for a chance to go to the national awards. Courtesy photo/Doug Reinhart

OGDEN — Saint Joseph Catholic High School received three nominations from the Utah High School Musical Theater Awards, hosted by the Utah Festival Opera in Logan. Claire Bruce was nominated for Best Actress, Jonathon Robbins for Best Cameo Performance and Joanne Hatch for Best Costumes in the play "Guys and Dolls." Both Bruce and Robbins were nominated for their roles in "Guys and Dolls;" Bruce played Adelaide, and Robbins was Liver Lips Louie.

"I am extremely excited for all the nominations and for Claire, with the hope that she can go on to the national High School Musical Theater Awards held in New York," said Jennifer Hughes, St. Joseph director of theater and dance department. "St. Joseph was the only Catholic school to be recognized and one of the few 1A schools to be nominated."

The only categories that advance to the national awards are Best Actor and Best Actress. To see if she will go to New York, Bruce will compete at the Utah High School Musical Theater Awards event April 27 at Utah State University in Logan. At that event, all of the winners of the state competition will be announced.

The Utah High School Musical Theater Awards (UHSMTA) began in 2009 to create a qualifying event for the Jimmy Awards, the national High School Musical Theater Awards held in New York.

If Bruce advances to the national competition, she will follow in the footsteps of another Jayhawk. In 2011, St. Joseph senior Taylor Nefcy won best leading actress for her role as Babe and she went on to compete in New York.

In 2011, the school also won the UHSMTA for best scenic design for the play "Pajama Game." In 2012, St. Joseph was nominated as one of the UHSMTA 10 best musicals.

The two substantial awards that come out of the UHSMTA are Best Actor and Best Actress, said Hughes. "Those two students are then sponsored at the New York event, where they attend workshops, meet Broadway stars, get coaching from Broadway producers and work with Broadway accompanists," she said. "They perform for the Jimmy Awards, and if they win they can receive scholarships."

The UHSMTA is sometimes called the high school ‘Tony Awards’ and was created by Michael Ballam, founding director of Utah Festival Opera, along with his daughter Vanessa Ballam.

Judges from the UHSMTA visit the 30 participating schools throughout the year to see the performances and based on their adjudication, schools are submitted for nominations. After all the judges have seen all the shows, they review the points and submit the final nominations to the teachers, said Hughes.

The St. Joseph theater students compete against high school students throughout the state of Utah. "Our students compete against programs that have 250 students in their programs," said Hughes. "We have 187 students on our campus, so the bar is very high in terms of how they grow; they get to see themselves against top programs. To be the only 1A school getting these nominations reflects the high level of our program."

Each year, the St. Joseph theater department produces a full-scale musical and a play by Shakespeare or other classical playwright. Students also participate in the UHSMTA competition, the Shakespeare competition, and the region and state competition.

"If students have an ambition to go to prestigious colleges or universities for theater, they can do that through our program; they have been held up to a very high standard," said Hughes. "It has been fun for them to participate with other kids who are doing theater and to realize the work that is going on in other schools."

Tickets for the Utah High School Musical Theater Awards at 7 p.m. on April 27 are available on Utah Festival Opera’s website, utahfestival.org.