All public, private, and charter schools in Erie, Niagara, Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Chautauqua, Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming counties producing a full-length musical production are eligible and encouraged to apply for and participate in the Shea’s High School Musical Theatre Awards. This includes ‘School Editions’ but not Broadway Junior or TYA shows.

Participating casts must be largely made up of at least 50% students in grades 9-12.

Participating programs must acquire proper licensing for their production and let the licensing house know that they are participating in this program.

Occur within the program’s adjudication window period of November 2025 to March 2026.

Utilize material from a musical production eligible for the 2026 National High School Musical Theater Awards competition (The Jimmy Awards).

Participating schools must commit to ALL dates and deadlines.

Participation in the Shea’s Wonder Awards program is 100% FREE for all schools! There are no fees associated with registering, participating, and ceremony tickets for the participating schools are free of charge. We are one of a small handful of regional awards programs throughout the country that keep our participation free of charge due to our dedication to make our programming as accessible as possible.

The Shea’s Wonder Awards program can accommodate for approximately 20 schools to participate in the program each year. This is due to the capacity limitations of the theatre, dressing rooms, rehearsal spaces, etc. Our long term goal is to increase the number of participating schools as we learn how to make adjustments to accommodate for the capacity limitations and grow our team.

Each participating production is attended by five (5) adjudicators who score each of the adjudicated categories using our scoring rubric. Each student playing a role recognized for eligibility by The Jimmy Awards also received their own set of adjudication using a different scoring rubric.

Once all scores have been tallied, the scores are combined and tallied to reveal the highest scoring productions in each category. The six (6) highest scoring productions in each category receive a nomination, the highest scoring production wins the category.

In the case of Outstanding Production of a Musical, all categories that count towards the overall score are weighted to put a 70% emphasis on the performance-based categories and a 30% emphasis on the design and execution-based categories. This is to ensure that big budgets are not the reason why a school may win this category as we are a performance-based program.

For Jimmy Award eligible performers, these individuals are required to audition and participate in the STAGE program in order to be considered. The auditions for the program are scored and the adjudicator scores given during their production are also taken into account. Only the sixteen (16) highest scoring auditionees are selected to participate in the STAGE program. At the end of the program, the participants receive one final adjudication which determines the eight (8) finalists who are chosen to perform at the Shea’s Wonder Awards ceremony. This performance is adjudicated live via a new panel of adjudicators and the highest scoring individuals (one (1) actor and one (1) actress) are selected as the winners.

Registration for all high schools will open on Friday, October 3rd, 2025 at 4:00 PM and will close on Monday, October 6th, 2025 at 11:59pm. Interested schools can also attend a virtual pre-registration informational session on Tuesday, September 30th, 2025 at 5:00pm.

Adjudicated Categories

• Outstanding Musical Production (3 winners – Gold, Silver, and Bronze)
• Performance – STUDENT
  • Outstanding Leading Performances (3 tiers of winners, 5 winners per tier)
  • Outstanding Collective Ensemble Performance
  • Outstanding Dance Execution
  • Outstanding Collective Vocal Performance
  • Outstanding Student-Led Orchestral Performance
• Technical – STUDENT / ADULT
  • Outstanding Lighting Design and Execution
  • Outstanding Scenic Design and Execution
  • Outstanding Costume Design and Execution
  • Outstanding Hair & Make-Up Design and Execution
• Direction – ADULT
  • Outstanding Musical Direction of a Musical
  • Outstanding Choreography of a Musical
  • Outstanding Direction of a Musical
• The Jimmy Awards Track – STUDENT
  • Best Performance by an Actor
  • Best Performance by an Actress

Submitted Categories

• Outstanding Execution by Crew
• The Showstopper Award
• All Star Cast (1 winner per school)
• Outstanding Original Poster Design
• Michael Shea Award for Theatre Educator of the Year

Spirit of Wonder Awards

• Magic of Theatre Award
• Power of Storytelling Award
• Celebration of Community Award

Tickets for students, teachers, production team members, or other associated individuals of the participating productions are 100% FREE of charge. The directors of each production need to request the number of tickets to the ceremony that they would like, and they will receive those tickets free of charge. If you are a parent, friend, or other patron not involved with a participating production, all tickets are $12 (pre-sale) or $15 (day-of).

Outstanding production of a musical (gold) will receive a $5,000 grant for that school’s theatre program.

Outstanding production of a musical (silver) will receive a $2,500 grant for that school’s theatre program.

Outstanding production of a musical (bronze) will receive a $1,000 grant for that school’s theatre program.

Outstanding Orchestral Performance will receive a $500 grant for the school’s theatre program.

Outstanding Collective Vocal Performance will receive a $500 grant for the school’s theatre program.

Outstanding Dance Performance will receive a $500 grant for the school’s theatre program.

Outstanding Achievement in Costumes will receive a $500 grant for the school’s theatre program.

Outstanding Achievement in Hair & Make-up will receive a $500 grant for the school’s theatre program.

Outstanding Achievement in Lighting will receive a $500 grant for the school’s theatre program.

Outstanding Achievement in Scenic Design will receive a $500 grant for the school’s theatre program.