Columbia Earns Four Rising Star Mentions For Spring Musical

MAPLEWOOD, NJ - The Columbia High School spring production of the musical "Mary Poppins" has earned a Paper Mill Playhouse 2019 Rising Star nomination and three honorable mentions.

The Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Awards are modeled after the Tony Awards, and Paper Mill Playhouse's program serves the entire state of New Jersey, with a full 100 entered productions from public, private and parochial high schools. Paper Mill Playhouse conceived and created the awards in 1996 to give schools the opportunity to showcase their musical arts programs on a statewide level, organizers said. The musicals are adjudicated by Paper Mill Playhouse throughout the spring by a group of 70 evaluators, with each school receiving four independent evaluations. Schools nominated for Outstanding Overall Musical and Leading Actor/Actress nominees perform at the event, and award recipients are presented with an engraved crystal award from Tiffany & Co.

Columbia's production of the musical earned the following Rising Star nomination:

• OUTSTANDING COSTUMING ACHIEVEMENT: Barbara Canace, Carol Rutledge

They also scored a trio of honorable mentions:

• OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ENSEMBLE MEMBER: Phoebe Dybner as "Bird Woman (understudy)"
• OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ENSEMBLE MEMBER: Franca Rosenblatt as "Bird Woman"
• OUTSTANDING HAIR AND MAKE-UP ACHIEVEMENT: TK

Paper Mill Playhouse also awards $5,000 in scholarships at the Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Awards Presented by the Investors Foundation. Five $1,000 cash scholarships are given to outstanding individual students who plan to continue studying theater performance or theater education in college. Paper Mill Playhouse is pleased to award a prize of $500 to a school receiving the 2019 Educational Impact Award, which acknowledges a school that successfully connects the musical to the district's curriculum, using the production as a teaching tool for the greater student body and local community.

Through the Rising Star "Theatre for Everyone" Inclusion and Access Award and a partnership with The Cultural Access Network of New Jersey, a project of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Paper Mill Playhouse will present a cash award of $1,000 to a school to recognize excellence in the promotion and practice of creative inclusion of students and adults with disabilities as performers, designers, musicians and production staff. Additionally, this award seeks to recognize and reward a school that takes steps to ensure their performances are accessible to audiences with disabilities.

Lastly, students receiving final nominations in the lead and supporting acting categories receive a scholarship to Paper Mill Playhouse's competitive Summer Musical Theatre Conservatory, a professional training program, which, along with advanced classes in singing, acting and dance, offers the nominees an opportunity to perform in the season finale concert, "New Voices of 2019: Learn Your Lessons Well" on Aug. 2 and Aug. 3 on the main stage at Paper Mill Playhouse.

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