Montco High School Performers Recognized At The Jimmy Awards

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA—Two local Montgomery County high school students recently got some national accolades when they were named top performers at a national theater award program.

Benjamin Brown, who attends Upper Dublin High School, came in number eight in the country at The Jimmy Awards for his musical performance of “All Fades Away” from The Bridges of Madison County during a July 15 performance that was broadcast nationally.

Brown was in the top six finalists who received a $3,000 scholarship toward his higher education.

Katie Smith, a Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School student, was named a semi-finalist at the awards show for her performance of “I’d Rather By Me” from Mean Girls.

Both area students received online praise for their accomplishments.

Upper Dublin High School congratulated Brown back in April on its Facebook page for being selected to represent Philadelphia at the awards competition this summer, noting that Brown would be spending one week working with industry professionals in order to prepare him for the competition.

Last week, it congratulated Brown after he was announced as a finalist in the competition.

“We are so incredibly proud of you and all that you have learned and accomplished through this process!,” the Upper Dublin Theatre Department posted on its Facebook page July 16, a day after Brown’s musical performance was broadcast across the country.

Brown is a rising Upper Dublin senior who plays the trombone, has made both state and national choir, and has been heavily involved in the theater department at Upper Dublin since his freshman year, according to high school theatre director Nicole Gerenyi.

Gerenyi said Brown also won a 2018 featured actor Philadelphia Independence Award for portraying Doody in Grease. He bean his local theater career by playing a lost boy in Peter Pan.

The Kimmel Cultural Campus posted on its Facebook page July 21 that Smith has been in the group’s Showstoppers program since the spring of 2019, performing multiple times on the campus during various events and summer camp productions.

“Congratulations to both Katie & Benjamin!!,” area resident Ann Marie Nacchio commented on Kimmel’s post about the students. “Been following Katie’s journey for years, supporting her Colonial Players & Plymouth Whitemarsh performances!! So proud!! The best is yet to come for both very talented performers.!!!”

Brown had been selected as the male representatives of the Philadelphia Independence Awards while Smith was chosen as the female representative to represent the region at the national Jimmy Awards.

According to the Colonial Players theater group, Smith has been a member of all eight productions at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School and she participated in many other productions across the region for many years.

“She is an incredibly talented young woman who puts great effort into her craft,” the Colonial Players stated in an April Facebook post.

The Jimmy Awards, formally titled The National High School Musical Theatre Awards, dates back to 2009 when it was created to emphasize the importance of theater arts education at schools across the country and reward excellence in student performance, according to information on its website.

The site states that the program impacts more than 140,000 students each year who participate in high school musical theater competitions sponsored by more than 40 professional theaters throughout the country.

The awards program – also referred to as The Jimmy Awards in honor of legendary Broadway theater owner and producer James 'Jimmy' M. Nederlander – has been responsible for more than $4 million in school scholarships given out to young theater performers, the website states. The program is administered by The Broadway League Foundation Inc. and is supported by a variety of theater industry organizations.

The recent awards featured medley and production performances by 72 nominees from 36 regions around the United States, as well as solos by select finalists.