JOHN COFFELTEditor

Coffee County Central High School Senior Alyssa Freeze recently attended in New York City the Jimmy Awards, a national celebration of outstanding student achievement in theater.

Freeze and just over 100 of her fellow top high school actors participated in an intensive 12-day theater experience at the nation’s top performing arts campus, The Julliard School.

“It was very busy,” Freeze said. “I competed in the spotlight award for the Nashville region. You have 51 regional programs… one boy and one girl goes from each program goes to New York.”

The Jimmy Awards is more than just an awards ceremony. It’s an intense 12 days in which the actors learn, rehearse and perform in a musical that culminates in a production staged at the Broadway theater that is also home to Disney’s “Lion King.”

The Jimmy ensemble rehearsed each day 8:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. Freeze was part of a non-character featured group.

“We got to dance and sing—do a little bit of everything,” she said.

The experience was an exhausting glimpse into what it takes to be a professional actor.

“I feel like I learned so much from it,” Freeze said. “You learn how the industry works there because it’s so different from how it is here.”

The actors were treated like industry professionals, and maybe a little more. A new Broadway show will be years in the making. New actors starting an established work would have about a month to prepare.

The Jimmy crew put their production together in 12 days.

“It’s very inspiring,” Freeze said. “You get there and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m here. This is possible,”

“But it’s also a bit of a wakeup call,” she added. “You just have to decide is this for me. They definitely expect a lot out of you, emotionally and physically. Though it is a group of teenagers, they expect us to act like working adults.”

Free time during the day was at a minimum. The intensity ramped up as opening day neared. Actors were dancing and rehearsing almost all the time. It was for Freeze simultaneously invigorating and exhausting.

“They were wanting perfection or as close to it as we could get and physically, you’re on your feet rehearsing for 12 hours every day,” Freeze said. “There’s not time to sit and chill. You are dancing or walking around doing the same thing 15 times in a row until it looks perfect. And you have 102 people all trying to look perfect.”

The troupe showcased the show at the Minskoff Theatre, where “Lion King” has been for over 25 years. Freeze was awestruck by the level of production that goes into a Broadway show.

“It was a really important rule that you don’t take any pictures,” she said. “Backstage was huge – unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

At the Manchester Arts Center, to get from the left wing to the right, an actor simply slips through passageway behind the stage. At the Minskoff, an actor descends two flights of stairs to cross under the stage.

“The stage itself was incredible,” Freeze said. “It has a lot of mechanisms that move up and down. All the set pieces fly in from the ceiling rather than being pushed onstage.”

Some of the costumes are so big they must be lowered onto the actors.

While not on par with a Disney production, the Jimmy Award production was still first rate.

“Even though there were 102 of us, every one still had a microphone,” Freeze said. “The sheer amount of budget and things that they were able to do and was normal for them, that was so incredible. It’s incomparable to anything I’ve done before.”

Though pushed hard the actors also got some perks. One was special access to the famed Tony Awards. Somewhat like the Grammys or the Oscars for the stage, the Tony Awards help illuminate and validate American theater by reaching national and global audiences.

In a theatrical dramatic reveal, the young actors were first led to believe they would be going to be attending a watch party in the dorms.

“The day of the Tonys, we were all told we had a four-hour professional development meeting,” Freeze said. “We were all dreading having to sit and listen to someone talk for four hours.”

Standing around waiting and wondering where the big meeting would be held, the group were informed that they would be going to the Tonys dress rehearsal.

“We got to watch all the numbers beforehand,” Freeze said. “They rehearsed giving out all the awards.”

After the rehearsal the group filed back to their own rehearsals until one of their directors addressed the group.

“Remember how we told you were going to have the best Toney Award watch party ever,” the director said. “Actually, you’re going to the Tony Awards.”

Freeze said the whole thing had been a big secret even among the staff until that moment.

“We had about an hour to get ready,” Freeze said. “And then we walked to the Tony Awards. It was insane to be in one room with that amount of famous people.”

The amount of production on sets alone amazed Freeze. Each number had a completely different set.

The “Outsiders” number, “The Rumble” had as part of its five-minute set, a rain scene.

As a comparison, locally at the MAC, Millennium Reparatory Company worked for months in 2018 to overcome the technical problems of rigging rain on the set of “Singing in the Rain.”

“They made it rain at the Tonys. To make it rain on stage is a technical achievement on its own, but for them to spend the money and the time to bring it to this other theater for a five-minute bit and then it’s gone forever is insane,” Freeze said.

Freeze said that all her experiences working on Broadway have helped her grow as a performer.

“I know a little more about what to expect in this industry,” Freeze said. “Going to Lipscomb (University) this fall, I know a little what to expect – this is how being a working professional feels.”

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.