Shuler Hensley gave a roomful of area high school students a bit of a scare Wednesday.
This had nothing to do with some of the 6-foot-3-inch actor’s roles portraying monsters on Broadway and in film.
Hensley sneaked into the Cobb Energy Centre to surprise about 400 teens rehearsing “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” the opening number for the awards ceremony named in his honor. They had been rehearsing with a Hensley stand-in up until now and weren't expecting him for several more days.
After the ensemble sang the words “Hey Mr. Hensley,” the man of the hour popped into the ballroom to deliver the booming answer: “Here I am!” The swirl of young performers didn’t miss a beat of their routine, even though they were stunned to see their host and mentor, who arrived early this year for extra time to work with the students in advance of the show.
Born and reared in Atlanta, Hensley was selected to be the namesake of the city’s high school musical theater awards when the program began in 2009. Dozens of cities host similar projects, in which awards are named for a musical actor from the community who rose to Broadway status. There are the Gene Kelly Awards in Pittsburgh and the Tommy Tune Awards in Houston. Tuesday night at Cobb Energy, it will be all about taking home a Shuler.
“I would have loved to have been a part of something like this when I was a high school student,” Hensley said backstage before the surprise entrance. The 1985 Westminster graduate went to the University of Georgia for two years on a baseball scholarship, then on to the Manhattan School of Music.
He won a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award for his role as Jud Fry in “Oklahoma!” in 2002; worked with Mel Brooks as the monster for the 2007 Broadway adaptation of "Young Frankenstein"; and recently came off a run in London alongside Mandy Patinkin. He has performed all over the world on stage and in film.
While the awards use a local success story as an ambassador and involve a hyped-up, red-carpet ceremony with celebrity presenters and cameos, the program doesn’t focus on fame as an end result.
It’s part of Cobb Energy’s educational program called Artsbridge. The event and the buzz around the ceremony are meant to draw attention to the importance of maintaining theater opportunities in high schools. More than 30 judges from Atlanta’s arts community were dispatched to about 40 metro schools over the past few months, combing productions for Shuler material in numerous categories.
“Our judges weren’t looking for wow or bang,” said Courtney Reed, director of education and community outreach for the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre Foundation. “It didn’t matter if the performance took place in a performing arts center or a lunchroom. We are looking for schools that do the best with what they have. Some receive great support, and some produce musicals on $500.”
Salem High School in Conyers, nominated for nine awards, is an example of high school theater on a shoestring. “I don’t even think we spent $500,” said Pete Talton, Salem's director of theater. He holds up a blazer the actors decorated and spray-painted themselves for “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” “Most of what we spent was on hot glue,” he said with a smile. But he said the challenge of a small pot helped the production in the end.
“The Broadway version was very big and set in the time period, but we set ours in an abandoned theater," Talton said. "The story is the same, but we decided to go in that direction with setting because, well, it was cheaper. But in doing so, the actors really had to take a leap and rely on themselves.”
Winners of the best actor and best actress category will go on to a national competition in New York City for a James Nederlander Award, or Jimmy. Last year, Atlanta student Alexandria Payne took home the title as well as $10,000 and a scholarship to New York University.
Event preview
The Shuler Hensley Awards for Excellence in High School Musical Theater
7:30 p.m. April 26. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. $15. 770-916-2800. www.ticketmaster.com, www.shulerawards.org.
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