BEST OF BEST IN SPOTLIGHT AT ‘TONY AWARDS’ OF UTAH HIGH SCHOOL MUSICALS

By Rachel J. Trotter,
Standard-Examiner
Published: Friday, April 22, 2016

OGDEN — Vanessa Ballam had the dream of taking the Utah High School Musical Theatre Awards to different venues around the state and now this year her dream is becoming reality as the show moves to Ogden High School.

Ballam is one of the directors of the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre in Logan and oversees the Utah High School Musical Theatre Awards. The awards on May 7 will honor high school students for every aspect of their musicals for the past year.

“It’s like the Tony Awards for high school,” Ballam said in a phone interview.

The awards have been held in Logan, the home of Utah Festival Opera, prior to now, but Ballam knows that many students travel from all over the state to participate so she wanted to make the event closer to home for some of the students.

“Utah State University has been so good to us, but they are undergoing some renovations this year so it seemed like the perfect year to make a move,” Ballam said. “Plus the Ogden High School auditorium is just beautiful and they have been wonderful to work with,” she added.

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