In two days, several Greene County High School students and newly graduated seniors will be recognized and perform at a special event.

The annual Iowa High School Music Theatre Awards are on Thursday at the Des Moines Performing Arts Center. Greene County was selected for several awards including 2024 graduates Ava Schilling for Outstanding Performance in a Principal Role, Gavin Vander Linden for Outstanding Achievement in a Behind-the-Scenes Business Role, and Olivia Hoyt and Grace Hardaway were chosen to participate in the Showcase Finale. One additional award was for Distinguished Scene.

Choir Director David Heupel says these awards were from the recently performed musical “Into the Woods” by Stephen Sondheim. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio about the Distinguished Scene Award that went to the cast during the performance of “Your Fault.”

“There are about six of them on stage and they’re basically in a song that’s an argument, yelling over whose fault it is. ‘It’s your fault. It’s your fault,’ and it’s back and forth. It’s like six individual parts all yelling at the same time. Bah-bah, bah-bah, bah-bah back and forth, back and forth. It was a tough one to put together so I’m glad it got recognized. It was a fun scene.” 

Heupel points out that Hoyt was chosen to perform in the Showcase Finale last year, as he describes what her first experience was like.

“I think you could say Olivia was in her happy place last year when she did this because she got to be involved in the singing and the dancing, and it’s a part of a musical theater event. I remember seeing her at the rehearsals last year and she was just soaking it up, just loving it. So I know she’s looking forward to doing that again. She’s going to college in North Carolina for musical theater as well, so you know it’s a love of hers.”  

The event will take place on Thursday and you can click on the link below to see the full list of honors and recognitions. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Bl3tZYeKbzko6MSDG0ZzvlnW5OSCRgJ/edit?pli=1