Monroe Student Wins Best Actress at National High School Musical Theatre Awards

Amina Faye, named Best Actress at the fifth annual Blumey Awards presented by Wells Fargo in May, took home the top female honor and a $10,000 college scholarship last night at the 2016 National High School Musical Theatre Awards in New York City.

Faye is a recent graduate of Central Academy of Technology and Arts in Monroe with plans to attend Penn State in the fall to study musical theater.

The National High School Musical Theatre Awards, also known as The Jimmy^TM Awards, is a weeklong Broadway “boot camp” and competition for the winners of high school musical theater awards from across the United States. Sixty-two high school students competed in The Jimmy’s this summer at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. The show was held on Broadway at the Minskoff Theater, home to Disney’s The Lion King, as an orchestra featuring some of Broadway’s top musicians played in the pit. Participants performed opening and closing group numbers, including songs from Hamilton, The Color Purple and Fiddler on the Roof. The closing number also featured Charlotte’s own Eva Noblezada, the 2013 Blumey Awards Best Actress and past finalist at The Jimmy Awards who went on to star in Cameron Mackintosh’s revival of Miss Saigon.

The Jimmy Awards participants received intense coaching on their solo songs from Broadway veterans and were taken on a field trip to see On Your Feet on Broadway after dining at famed theater-district restaurant Sardi’s.

Faye and Justin Rivers, a rising senior at Central Academy of Technology and Arts, represented Charlotte in New York after competing in the 2016 Blumenthal Performing Arts High School Musical Theater Awards last month. Sponsored by Wells Fargo, The Blumey Awards program was created by Blumenthal Performing Arts five years ago to recognize, celebrate and nurture the talents of high school musical theater students in the Charlotte region, as well as offer area students a pathway to the national competition in New York. 

"Being a part of this has been incredible from start to finish,” said Faye. “I've always known this is what I love to do, but now I feel validated that I'm choosing the right path for my career." 

This year was the third time one of Charlotte’s winners made it to the finals at The Jimmy’s, but Faye is the first to be named a winner.

“We are immensely proud of Amina Faye and her incredible performance last night,” said Blumenthal Performing Arts President Tom Gabbard.  “It’s an honor to have had such talented young people represent the Charlotte area on the national level over the past five years. We are humbled by the success stories that have come out of this experience but it simply speaks to the quality of the high school musical theater programs and the teachers leading these efforts in our region. We’re honored to do our part in supporting that.”