PPAC Announces 2023/2024 Ocean State Star Awards Winners
Ocean State Star Awards Showcase Takes Place on Sunday, June 2, 2024 on the PPAC Stage
Providence, RI – The Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC)’s Outreach and Engagement department is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023/2024 Ocean State Star Awards (OSSA) program. PPAC’s OSSA program honors and encourages excellence in musical theatre performance and productions among area high school students. The Ocean State Star Awards showcase takes place on the PPAC stage on Sunday, June 2, 2024 at 7P. The awards ceremony showcases a performance selection from each Outstanding Musical winner, group performance medleys featuring Outstanding Lead Performers and Outstanding Dance Performers and a performance by Rising Star nominees. At the event’s finale, two nominees will be announced from the Outstanding Lead Performer category; these performers will represent the state of Rhode Island at the fifteenth annual Jimmy Awards® in June.
The Ocean State Star Awards showcase is open to the public. Tickets for students are $15; students can use the code OSSA24 when purchasing tickets online at ppacri.org/OSSA and at the box office window (220 Weybosset Street, Providence, RI 02903). Students must show their student ID when picking up their ticket(s) at the box office window. Tickets are also available for $30 - $40. All ticket prices include a $4 per ticket restoration charge.
The Jimmy Awards®/The National High School Musical Theatre Awards® (NHSMTA®) program impacts approximately 130,000 students who participate in 51 regional high school musical theatre competitions sponsored by presenters of touring Broadway productions throughout the United States (this includes PPAC’s Ocean State Star Awards program). Presented by The Broadway League Foundation, Inc., the NHSMTA invites two nominees from each local regional ceremony to New York City for a rigorous theatre intensive that includes coaching sessions, training, and rehearsals led by some of Broadway’s most accomplished professionals. Nominees will spend ten days in New York City from Friday, June 14, 2024, through Tuesday, June 25, 2024, and their efforts throughout the week will lead to one extraordinary talent showcase performed live in front of an audience on a Broadway stage.
For the 2023/2024 school year, sixteen high schools in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts participated in the Ocean State Star Awards program. A panel of adjudicators, comprised of educators, theatre experts and industry professionals, attended and reviewed the following high school musical theatre productions (listed in alphabetical order):
- Bishop Hendricken High School: The Drowsy Chaperone
- Bishop Feehan High School: Shrek The Musical
- Coventry High School: Little Shop of Horrors
- Dighton Rehoboth Regional High School: Emma! A Pop Musical
- East Greenwich High School: Disney’s Descendants: The Musical (Isle Cast & Auradon Cast)
- Franklin High School: Legally Blonde, The Musical
- Joseph Case High School: Seussical The Musical (Cast A & Cast Z) and Urinetown
- Mt. Hope High School: Once Upon a Mattress
- North Kingstown High School: Kiss Me, Kate (Cast Red & Cast Blue)
- Ponaganset High School: Mamma Mia!
- Rocky Hill County Day School: Disney’s The Little Mermaid
- Seekonk High School: Mamma Mia!
- Somerset Berkley Regional High School: Mean Girls
- South Kingstown High School: 9 to 5
- St. Mary Academy – Bay View: Disney’s The Little Mermaid
- West Warwick High School: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Mean Girls
Adjudicators provided written feedback to high school musical theatre programs and nominated productions, creative team members and student performers in sixteen different categories.
Please see below for a listing of winners in a few of the major award categories for the Ocean State Star Awards:
Outstanding Musical
| School Name | Show Title |
|---|---|
| Joseph Case High School | Seussical The Musical: Cast A |
| North Kingstown High School | Kiss Me, Kate: Cast Red |
| North Kingstown High School | Kiss Me, Kate: Cast Blue |
| Somerset Berkley Regional High School | Mean Girls |
| West Warwick High School | 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee |
| West Warwick High School | Mean Girls |
Outstanding Ensemble
| School Name | Show Title |
|---|---|
| Bishop Hendricken | The Drowsy Chaperone |
| Joseph Case High School | Seussical The Musical: Cast A |
| North Kingstown High School | Kiss Me, Kate: Cast Red |
| Somerset Berkley Regional High School | Mean Girls |
| West Warwick High School | 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee |
| West Warwick High School | Mean Girls |
Outstanding Orchestra
| School Name | Show Title |
|---|---|
| North Kingstown High School | Kiss Me, Kate: Cast Red |
| South Kingstown High School | 9 to 5 |
| West Warwick High School | 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee |
| West Warwick High School | Mean Girls |
Outstanding Technical Achievement
| School Name | Show Title |
|---|---|
| Joseph Case High School | Seussical The Musical: Cast A |
| North Kingstown High School | Kiss Me Kate: Cast Red |
| South Kingstown High School | 9 to 5 |
| West Warwick High School | Mean Girls |
Reporters may view a complete list of winners in all awards categories on the Ocean State Star Awards’ web page: https://www.ppacri.org/outreach/ocean-state-star-awards
-30-