Singing, dancing, and hard work are just a couple of the characteristics that three Bowie students, Preston Withrow, Mary Jensen, and Mila Maxon, were required to have in their difficult rehearsal process for the national Heller Awards. The national heller awards took place at Bass Concert Hall on May 6 and consisted of multiple awards and performances from the Impact Arts select ensemble. Although this was all fun, getting into the select ensemble was no easy task.
“I got into the select ensemble by first filling out an application online that had my conflicts and just my resume and stuff about me. Then I had to submit two videos of me singing, each about one to one and a half minutes long and then also perform a monologue and record a video of me dancing to a song from newsies from a teach through video,” Jensen said. “I also had to record a two minute video about why I wanted to be in the select ensemble and why my passion for theater was strong.
Once these three Bowie students went through this rigorous audition process, they immediately had to jump into a difficult and long rehearsal process. This process may not seem like a big task to those who just watch the Hellers, but the prep and length of the workdays were actually a major part of this process.
“To prepare for the Hellers, we spent really long days in rehearsal studios and trying to make the numbers we were performing as clean as possible,” Withrow said. “The preparation for the Heller Awards was very intense but fun. At least three times a week we would rehearse until about 10 each night and work through numbers, cleaning and choreographing. We learned many different songs in just a couple months, and we spent a lot of time working on developing our characters and a story.”
Maxon describes this, although difficult, process to be necessary and important because the final product needed to be perfected.
“The things leading up to the performance are very important like spacing rehearsal, lift call, and running vocals on stage,” Maxon said. “Prep for the Hellers was a lot of rehearsals and blocking which required focus from everybody.”
Bowie doesn’t participate in the Heller Awards as a company, so this representation of hard work and dedication through the select ensemble rehearsals was a chance for Bowie students to represent the school and make new connections. Even though this process is rigorous and hard, Jensen had opportunities to meet multiple new people and grow as a well-rounded performer.
“My favorite part of the process was getting to know everyone and seeing so many talented people every single day and watching everyone grow and perform, as well as watching myself grow not only as a performer, but as a dancer and an actor, we spent so many hours on choreo so my dancing abilities grew a lot,” Jensen said. “I also enjoyed watching other people grow in their choreo as well, and watching everybody tell their story and see their passion when they perform. I made so many friends that I will cherish for the rest of my life and I’m glad that I met them.”
After the amount of sweat and constant running of the dances these students had to go through during the rehearsal process, they were able to finally make it to the Heller awards, which was surreal because Bowie students typically don’t get this opportunity.
“The performance was so unique and unlike anything I have ever done. The Heller Awards is an awards program for high school theaters, where different schools are nominated for their high school musical production,” Withrow said. “The performance involves numbers from best production nominees, medleys, and select ensemble performances. They also send two students from the Heller Awards to the Jimmy Awards, the national high school theatre awards. I was a part of the select ensemble for the Heller Awards, and so I performed in four numbers during the ceremony, an opening number, a medley, the opening of act 2, and the closing number.”
Jensen loved seeing the audience and being able to showcase all the numbers she had worked so consistently hard on.
“The songs were “Moving Out” by Billy Joel, “Don’t Stop Me Now”by Queen , “Sensation” from “Tommy” the musical, “Seasons of Love” from “Rent”, “Let Me Be Your Star” from “Smash”, and On Broadway,” Jensen said. “We got to dance and sing our little hearts out as well as tell a story throughout all six songs. We also opened at two with one from a course line. It was really fun because the audience loved us and we put on good entertainment for the hellers and got to entertain an entirely packed bass concert hall.”
Maxon has loved this experience so much she is already discussing going back for next year.
“It’s already my second year and I would love to come back once again,” Maxon said. “I would definitely recommend this program to others, it is such a valuable learning opportunity for young artists willing to pursue theater in the future.”
For Maxon, she is experienced with the entire process and actual day of Hellers, but for Withrow and Jensen being at the Hellers for the first time made them realize why their rehearsal process was so consistent and difficult.
“I think the Hellers performance was my favorite part of the experience because seeing it all come together for an audience was so awesome and it made me really proud of the work we all did,” Withrow said. “Although it was a really intense rehearsal process and was tiring, it was all worth it because I got to do what I love most with some really amazing people.”
Even though the actual performance of those spectacular and perfected performances were an absolute thrill according to these Bowie students, they also discussed how they enjoyed the behind the scenes of that day.
“My favorite part of the entire experience was the day of the performance whenever everyone got really close to me, bonded and connected in the makeup room before we performed,” Jensen said. “Also we connected a lot which showed in our performance more and you could tell from an audience perspective, how much we bonded as an ensemble.”
According to the students, this process of auditioning, rehearsing, and performing at the Heller Awards changed the students’ perspective on theater and allowed them to grow as not only well-rounded performers, but people.
“Overall I have come out of the select ensemble as a totally changed person, every time I work with them I always learn so much about the professional world of theater and lessons to use when going into the professional world of theater,” Maxon said. “The Hellers always push me to become the best I can be, I always come out with so much more friends than I went in with, the bonds that I’ve made are so important to me as a human. It’s good to know I have a place to belong and feel safe.”
