St. Joseph CHS receives Musical Theater awards

Intermountain Catholic

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Saint Joseph Catholic High School, won two awards at the Utah High School Musical Theater Awards for their production of ?Pajama Game.?

LOGAN — Saint Joseph Catholic High School was among the winners of the first Utah High School Musical Theater Awards, held at Kent Concert Hall at Utah State University Chase Fine Arts Center in Logan April 30.

St. Joseph senior Taylor Nefcy won best leading actress and the school won best scenic design for the play "Pajama Game."

The event was hosted by Michael Ballam, founding director of Utah Festival Opera, and was sponsored by Utah Festival Opera and the Utah Festival Conservatory of the Performing Arts. Finalists in the best musical, best actor and best actress categories were required to perform.

As a result of her win, Nefcy will compete in the National High School Musical Theater Awards in New York City. She also will participate in master classes, have one-on-one coaching and contacts with theater professionals.

"Having a lead performance was an amazing way to end my senior year," said Nefcy, who moved to Utah from Michigan her sophomore year. "All the people who have done plays with me were in ?Pajama Game' as well. The costumes, the scenes, the shows were just a blast every single night."

Nefcy played Babe in "Pajama Game." "Babe was really fun to be because she was really spunky and very bold, but at the same time she had a sensitive side and was vulnerable," she said. "It was fun because she was a lot like me because our director, Ms. Perry, helps us find ourselves in the character. Prior to performing at the Musical Theater Awards, I was intimidated because I come from a 1A school, but Ms. Perry told me to own it. When they announced that I had won, I burst into tears and could hardly talk during my speech. It was a life-changing moment."

"It was a great honor to have Taylor win best actress," said Jennifer Perry, St. Joseph director of Performing Arts for the past four years. "She will have to prepare and perform two songs to compete on the national level. She will get to work with Broadway stars, directors and producers.

"The Utah High School Musical Theater Awards is sometimes called the high school ?Tony Awards,'" said Perry. "The National High School Musical Theater Awards was formed in 2009. It's nicknamed the ?Jimmy Awards,' after Jimmy Nederlander, a famous Broadway producer. There were a lot of high schools around the country doing a version of these awards on their own, but they wanted to have a national competition based on state qualifying events."

The Utah Festival Opera notified Utah high schools last August that they were hosting the Utah High School Musical Theater Awards; 25 schools were accepted to participate. Two judges then attended each production put on by the schools.

"They then nominated shows based on the various categories," said Perry. "There were 13 categories and St. Joseph received 10 nominations overall, more than any high school in the state. It was very exciting and surprising, given the fact that we are a tiny Catholic school with only 187 students going against 3A, 4A and 5A schools."

Juan Diego senior Lauren Rathbun also competed in the Best Actress category for the production "Once Upon a Mattress."

"It was quite an experience for her because she got to work with six other girls who were up for that award out of the 24 schools," said Steve Pay, Juan Diego drama teacher. "It was interesting to see them put together a medley and perform it. She really enjoyed it. She has been accepted into the music and dance program at the University of Utah."