Meet the NorCal high school graduates competing in prestigious musical theatre awards
ALBANY, Calif. (KGO) -- Two Bay Area high school graduates are flying to New York City to compete in the prestigious National High School Musical Theatre Awards.
Basye Mummert and Aidan Liston won best actress and best actor at the regional Sara Bareilles Awards on May 18. It was a moment that would lead them to their biggest dream yet.
"In two days, I will be flying out to New York. I have never been to New York before, so I'm really, really excited about it. I'm also really nervous," Mummert said.
Mummert and Liston are headed to compete in the awards also known as the Jimmy's.
"I have been wanting to go to the Jimmy's since I knew what they were, so like in elementary school, maybe middle school," Mummert said. "I was Googling competitions for musical theater people in my town in my age group and I found the Jimmy's and I said that is what I want to do. At some point, I said well that is not going to happen."
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But it did for both Mummert, an Albany High School graduate and Liston, from Inspire School of Arts and Sciences in Chico, California. Both of them have been acting for as long as they can remember.
"I have been acting since second, third grade, it's been a long time," Liston said. "I did my elementary school's production of The Music Man. I was one of the assembly members," Liston said.
The Jimmy's is a prestigious national competition. Whoever wins best actor and best actress receives a $25K scholarship. Mummert and Liston have been preparing their songs.
"We are going to perform our songs that we did for the Sara Bareilles Awards, 'Bring them home,' she is going to sing the song from Shrek, it's going to be awesome," Liston said.
Mummert said there's a total of 110 people competing from 55 regions across the U.S.
There is a lot to celebrate for these young performers who just graduated high school, and now are both also gearing up to continue pursuing the arts in college right after the Jimmy's.
"It's a pretty big deal and I'm very excited," said Liston, who will be getting a BFA at Molloy University.
"2025 is kind of my year. My friends and I like to joke that we eat 12 grapes under the table and we just think the grapes are working," said Mummert who will be going to UCLA in the fall.
You can watch the Jimmy Awards, hosted by Josh Groban, Monday June 23 at 4:30 p.m. PT at Jimmy Awards.
