The Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Awards were created in 1996 to encourage and reward exceptional accomplishments in the production of high school musical theater. The Rising Star Awards – Presented by the Investors Foundation is a statewide competition of New Jersey high school musicals modeled after Broadway’s Tony Awards.
Awards are presented for outstanding achievement by students and educators in the areas of performance, design, direction, choreography, technical production and overall production excellence.
The Rising Star Award Corps of Evaluators, comprised of theater professionals, performing artists, designers, and theater arts educators, views 100 student productions from high schools across the state.The Tony Awards-style Rising Star Awards Gala Ceremony is presented on the Paper Mill stage. Award-winners are presented with an engraved crystal award from our friends at Tiffany & Co.
Paper Mill Playhouse offers four $1,000 cash awards to outstanding individual students participating in entered Rising StarAward productions, and who plan to continue studying theater or technical theater in college. A fifth cash scholarship of $1,000 is awarded in memoriam of Rising Star Nominee Douglas Michael Krueger.
Lastly, students receiving final nominations in the lead and supporting acting categories win a scholarship to Paper Mill Playhouse’s competitive Summer Musical Theater Conservatory, a professional training program which along with advanced classes in singing, acting and dance, offers the nominees an opportunity to perform on the Paper Mill stage in our annual New Voices Concert. Any New Jersey public, private or parochial school may enter by completing an application and being among the first 100 to apply.
2019 Rising Star Nominations & Honorable Mentions
