ArtsBridge Foundation announces nominees for 2023 Shuler Awards

Mar. 23—In a special online presentation in partnership with Georgia Public Broadcasting, ArtsBridge Foundation announced on March 23 the nominees for the 15th Annual Georgia High School Musical Theatre Awards for the 2022-23 school year.

Also known as the Shuler Awards or The Shulers — named for the Marietta-born stage and screen star Shuler Hensley — the GHSMTA will be celebrated at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre and via live broadcast on GPB-TV on April 20 at 8 p.m. The evening includes festive purple-carpet arrivals inspired by the Tony Awards, live nominee performances and trophies presented in 18 categories. Scholarship recipients will also be announced.

A video of the nominations announcement, as well as the future winner announcements, may be found at ArtsBridgeGA.org/Programs/Shuler-Awards/.

GHSMTA winners and nominees are recognized as the best of the state's high school musical theatre students and schools. The complete nominees list is available online in the GHSMTA section of ArtsBridgeGA.org.

High school theater students and departments were judged to create scores enabling presentation of 16 categories including: direction, music direction, orchestra, choreography, overall production, scenic design, lighting, costumes, technical execution, sound and best performances by an ensemble, two leading performers, two supporting performer and a featured performer. Adjudicators also cited one school each to receive the Spotlight and Showstopper awards.

The list of nominees, which represent 39 schools from 17 Georgia counties — compared with 26 schools from 13 counties last year, was from an initial pool of 52 participating schools spanning 22 Georgia counties. Unfortunately, one school had to withdraw from the competition due to cast/crew illness.

The Cobb County nominees by category are:

— In Orchestra, under Honorable Mentions, was Jim Palmer of Allatoona High School in Acworth for "The Addams Family."

— In Best Performance By A Leading Actor, under Honorable Mentions, was Grayson Lows of Whitefield Academy in Mableton for 'Beauty and the Beast."

— In Best Featured Performer was Mia DeMartino of Allatoona High School for "The Addams Family."

— In Technical Execution, under Honorable Mentions, were Traci Kemp and Tori Zarnay, both of Allatoona High School, for "The Addams Family."

— In Sound was Traci Kemp, Jessica Walkup and Lesslie Kavanaugh, all of Allatoona High School for "The Addams Family."