HHS Actors Win Theater Awards

by Leia Owen

Last month, nominations for the TAMY Awards were released. The HHS Drama Society was nominated for seven. The TAMYs are high school musical awards intended to recognize those who have accomplished excellence in performance and production of high school theater in Massachusetts schools.

Senior Laura Girard (who won Best Supporting Actress in 2012) was nominated for best actress for her role as Olive in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Both Edward Andrews, sophomore, and Jack Colaianni, junior, were nominated for Best Supporting Actor for their roles in Footloose. Senior Carly Usherwood was nominated for Best Featured Actress for the second year in a row, this year for Urleen in Footloose. Freshman Buren Andrews was also nominated for the “Not-Your-Average Chorus Member” award for his role in Footloose. The Musical Pit of Footloose, under the direction of Jason Caron, was also nominated for Best Student Orchestra.

Of all the nominations, HHS had one winner. Edward Andrews won Best Supporting Actor for his role as Reverend Shaw Moore.

“I’m definitely excited and proud of myself,” said Andrews. “ I feel like the more I do theater, the more I get accustomed to portraying feelings and stuff like that. With this particular role, I could connect to the character.”

The last figure Andrews played was a middle schooler in a spelling bee, so portraying a middle-aged church leader pushed him further out of his element. However, this did not deter him from stepping right into the role.

“The character reminded me of my dad a little bit… he’s charismatic, and my dad’s not as set in his ways as Reverend Shaw was, but I think the way he deals with his feelings and being caught in between two sides was similar,” said Andrews. “The more I thought about the story and how the character was caught in the middle, and he put up boundaries to protect himself, the more I could buy into the character. I think that’s important for any actor.”

Laura Girard was also nominated for the National High School Theatre Awards (also known as the Jimmy Awards-after James Nederlander), where she competed as both Ariel and Olive.

“I’m honored to have made it this far, and it will be an amazing experience,” said Girard.

Students from the United States competed regionally, and sixty were selected. Girard is one of those sixty; she and Connor Fallon of Framingham will be representing New England. She will be spending a week in New York City rehearsing for a showcase on Broadway, where all students perform what they’ve been working on for that week.

“I’m very excited about the New York opportunity,” Girard said, “but also very nervous.”