Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) hosts the Tommy Tune Awards (TTA) Program every year to celebrate the educational value, artistry, and community of high school musical theatre in the Greater Houston area.
Concordia claimed their first Tommy Tune Award in school history when Ephraim Iwama ’23 was named a winner in the Outstanding Actor category at the 2022-2023 Tommy Tune Awards Show on May 4, 2023!
Over the course of the 2022-2023 school year, 47 Houston area high schools produced a full-length musical to compete in 18 different TTA categories. 37 of these schools were public high schools while 10 were private high schools, like Concordia.
Each school was adjudicated by a team of volunteer mentors and professional Houston-based music/theatre artists and those adjudicators grade the performance and students resulting in nominations and eventually finalists.
29 of the 47 schools who competed in the TTA program had at least one finalist in the 18 award categories. Out of Concordia’s 15 Tommy Tune Award Nominations, two of those were named as Finalists: Ephraim Iwama ’23 in the Outstanding Actor category for his role as Tarzan and Katelyn Hurst ’23 in the Outstanding Dancer category for her role as Sabor the Leopard/Snake/Butterfly/Ape in the schools Winter musical Tarzan at the beginning of March.
The finalists for each award category were invited to attend the annual Tommy Tune Awards Ceremony on May 4, 2023 at The Hobby Center downtown Houston and also got to participate in some choreographed selections for the audience to enjoy.
Of the 18 award categories, the number of finalists varied with as many as 27 finalists in the Outstanding Lead category and as few as three finalists in the Outstanding Sound Design category. On average, each award category had 5-8 finalists.
Iwama was one of multiple student winners named from the seven finalists in the Outstanding Actor award while Hurst was one of 11 finalists for the Outstanding Dancer award.
Both Crusader students drove downtown for evening practices at The Hobby Center with the other finalists in the Outstanding Lead, Supporting, Actor, Dancer, and Honorable Mention categories. These finalists worked on various choreographed pieces and ultimately performed them during the awards show on one of the most prestigious stages in Texas. The Outstanding Actor and Outstanding Dancer finalists performed together which provided a neat opportunity for Iwama and Hurst to perform one final time together on stage as Concordia students.
In addition to Iwama and Hurst, Melissa Oblinger ’24 also was invited to participate in the awards program as a director’s choice nominee based on Concordia’s nomination in the Outstanding Musical category. Oblinger wore the Tarzan show shirt and performed with other director’s choice students from schools that also had received a nomination for Outstanding Musical.
In Concordia’s rich history, we have been blessed with many talented theatre arts students and some of the productions still live on in school history. In recent years, Concordia has begun competing in the Tommy Tune Awards and has been honored with several finalists including most recently Eliza Schumacher ’22 (Outstanding Supporting Actress in Shrek The Musical), Jackson Cook ’21 (Outstanding Lead in Godspell), and Concordia’s 2020 Musical Production of Godspell (Outstanding Costume Design).
We sat down with Ephraim Iwama, Katelyn Hurst, and Melissa Oblinger and asked them about the experience and here’s what they had to say:
Q: What was it like performing at The Hobby Center? What was the stage and backstage like?
Iwama: It was incredible! Performing on that stage was unlike anything I’ve ever done. Everything was lit up, and I could hardly see the drop off of the stage. I wasn’t too nervous about falling off.
Hurst: I had never been to the Hobby Center before, but it was an amazing experience. The stage was so much larger than any I had ever performed on before. The ceiling was covered in constellations and sparkling stars creating a truly magical experience to perform under it.
Oblinger: I had been to The Hobby Center multiple times to see different TUTS performances and other musical tours. Being on the stage was an experience like no other. The lights were so bright that you could hardly see the audience, but it made you feel like you were just living in the moment; it almost seems surreal! Not only was the stage magnificent, but so was backstage! Both areas were huge but backstage surprised me the most. It was so fun seeing the tech and crew working, as well as seeing the organizational process to keep things flowing smoothly. Everything behind the scenes moved at a fast pace, but it gave such a rush of energy!
Q: What was it like performing alongside so many other talented students from other schools in the area?
Iwama: Slightly intimidating, but I felt that I deserved to be there. Of course, the dancers, were all amazing so they were often in the front view. But I did get to be in the front for a little bit and that was fun. Everyone was so talented, and the singers were fantastic to work with as well.
Q: Were you surprised when your name was announced after the first two award winners for your Outstanding Actor category?
Iwama: The judges had prepped us at some of the rehearsals that some categories would have multiple winners. Theatre is objective and each judge might have liked something in different students, so I wasn’t surprised but more thankful. We had worked hard for several late rehearsals leading up to the awards show and those practices felt more like an audition where they were deciding who was going to win each category.
Q: You initially didn’t want to audition for Tarzan and it took a little encouragement. Is there anyone you’d like to thank?
Iwama: I didn’t want to do Tarzan at first because I felt like I already had so much going on and wasn’t sure about how much more I wanted to pile on top of that. I wasn’t sure that if I did it, I would be able to put my all into a role. After talking with several people in my life and all of them expressing concern about whether I would be doing the show, I took some time to reflect and figure out what I wanted and what would be best for me. Ultimately, I decided that yes, I did want to be in the show, and that I couldn’t miss my senior musical under any circumstances because one day I would probably regret it. And thank God I did, because it was truly one of my favorite experiences ever and has opened so many doors to so many new amazing opportunities. I would like to thank Mr. Schultz and Mr. Palomaki for talking to me when I wasn’t sure if I wanted to audition, my parents for understanding my mindset while also encouraging me to do it, and our wonderful director Ms. Erica Gallegos for never pushing me to audition, but instead making sure that I knew that whatever I chose was okay because I should do what I was comfortable with.
Q: How long have you been dancing for? How often do you train each week? What forms of dance do you train? How did that translate to musical theatre?
Hurst: I've been dancing since I was three, so around fifteen years, and have been doing pre-professional ballet since I was twelve, around 6 years. I train around 17 hours a week including my classes and rehearsals.
I've trained in ballet since I was three years old and along the way have taken classes in tap, jazz, contemporary, and modern, however, I currently only train in ballet and modern styles of dance, which are very strict regarding following the rules and tradition. It was an interesting transition from a strict traditional pre-professional dance studio to musical theater. I found musical theater to be more open and freer. In ballet, there is just a right or wrong technique, while in musical theatre there are no defined rules. I was able to experience a form of dance that was nothing like I'd experienced prior.
Q: Tarzan was your first musical at Concordia, what was a deciding factor for you to audition?
Hurst: I auditioned for Tarzan because it was my senior year, and I wanted a change of pace in addition to my ongoing pre-professional ballet training. I had been doing strictly pre-professional company work for so long that I felt like it would be a welcome addition. I felt that auditioning would help me open my horizons to a new style of movement and dance. I'm very glad I did because auditioning and joining Tarzan did just that, and it's allowed me to think past just ballet as a career. Despite being a prospective dance major, I'm also looking at musical theatre and acting options at my college to continue performing in many different ways.
Q: Concordia has several female students that dance outside of school. What message of encouragement do you have for those younger students and potential students to audition for a musical in the future?
Hurst: A message I'd like to send to all the other dancers at Concordia, and everywhere else, is that it never hurts to try something new. Even if you've been dedicated to a certain dance style or career path you'll never know if you enjoy something or will succeed in a new genre unless you take the chance.
Q: How did you find out you were selected as a director’s choice? How did that make you feel as you think back to your performance as Kala?
Oblinger: My mom had received a text message with the news that I was chosen to be part of Tommy Tunes this year! She shared the message with me, and I was MORE than ecstatic! I felt and still feel so very grateful for the opportunity that was given to me. Kala was such a hard role to play because of the emotional depth that she carried within her heart. Portraying each emotion took a lot of work and took a lot out of me, and I often felt a lack of confidence in myself throughout the run of the show. Finding out that was I chosen to be part of the Tommy Tune Awards show this year helped me bounce back and gain more confidence in myself and my performing abilities. I grew so much under the guidance that Ms. Erica and my other directors gave me throughout rehearsals, and I cannot express how grateful I am for this opportunity of a lifetime.
Congrats to these students and staff for their hard work on this year’s production! We are proud of all of our students who participated in the cast, crew, tech, and orchestra. We love and support your talents and passion for musical theatre!
To learn more about theatre and all of the Fine Art offerings at Concordia, visit www.SaderNationTX.com/finearts
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