Shea's Performing Arts Center and The Lipke Foundation presents the 24th Annual KENNY AWARDS!

Shea's Performing Arts Center and The Lipke Foundation are proud to present the 24th Annual Kenny Awards Ceremony, an endeavor that recognizes the talent, dedication, and efforts of our local high school youth.

The finalists for the 2016 Kenny Awards are Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart - Sister Act, Eden Jr/Sr High School - Shrek the Musical, Frontier High School - Disney's The Little Mermaid, Maple Grove High School - Anything Goes, Mount St. Mary Academy - Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, Nardin Academy - Pippin, Orchard Park High School - Into the Woods, Royalton Hartland Central School - Thoroughly Modern Millie, St. Mary's High School - Fame, and Stapoint High School - Disney's Beauty & the Beast

The Kenny adjudicators viewed and evaluated the productions and determined the nominees and winners based on what they saw. There are 14 award categories, including "The Kenny" for Outstanding Musical Production in which the winning school receives a $5,000 grant from the Lipke Foundation to be used solely by the school's theatre department. Other awards include individual performances in leading and supporting roles, as well as areas of technical production, orchestration, choreography, set design, and dance performance.

The Kenny Awards is one of more than 35 regional awards programs nationwide participating in the National High School Musical Awards Program, aka The Jimmy Awards, which will allow the selected Outstanding Leading Actress and Actor of the Kenny Awards to win an all-expenses-paid, week-long trip to New York City to compete in the National High School Musical Theatre Awards in June, 2017. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will include rehearsals and coaching sessions with Broadway performers, performances, and other beneficial experiences. Participants in "The Jimmy Awards" will compete for various college scholarships.