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Story of the Awards: The inspiration for these
awards came from The Archies awarded after the Providence College
theater productions of the early 1970's. And the
inspiration for those awards, of course, were the |
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The Jimmy - Originally awarded after plays directed by Jim Ascoli. This award was injured in a car accident in the fall of 2002, and the medallion at the top was replaced by the student of record. Because of this, the MHS Drama Club's new motto had to be changed. It is now "Fighting World Hunger Through Space Exploration." Obviously. Jim retired from teaching in Middletown in July 2006, but we have decided to continue awarding this trophy after each show. Surprisingly, it has recently come to our attention that there are "real" Jimmy Awards for high school musical theatre. It seems we started about 25 years before them, and we agree that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and we await our royalty cheques. |
The
Jimmy medals - custom made for the MHS Drama Club by Mr. Shane Richards in our Engineering and Design shop. This way winners can have something to treasure forever!
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The
Corre v2.0 - also custom made for the us by Mr. Shane Richards in our Engineering and Design shop. This one will be collected and passed on with each show forever! |
The Car-o-Line - For shows directed by Caroline McNamara (MHS '04). We discussed a short piece of printed Christmas music (too seasonal) or possible a shiny red raincoat (too British) but this definitely the right choice. Amazing
Fake Fact: those are full-size cars, and the winner has to provide
a garage for storage. |
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| The Corre - To be awarded after shows directed by Peter Corr, from Rogers High School. First awarded May 2019 to Julia McGinn after Godspell, this award was originally conceived in 2015 but it took four years of research to lean how to eat an apple and encase it in lucite. Yes that's a real apple core. | The
Petza - To be awarded after shows musically directed by Dominic Petze, from Rogers High School. First awarded May 2019 to Ryan Collum after Godspell. The pizza was made by MHS student Grace Haskell during her advisory period in the ceramics room, and the award was named by she and Mia Stevenson. Mr. Zahm's suggestions were the Pitza, the Pettzza, the Pizze, and a few others that were even worse. Fortunately he was outvoted. |
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| The kSandr- To be awarded after shows directed by Aleksandr Kobrynich. His directorial debut was Cabaret as a senior project, which was an amzing and completely successful stretch. First awarded Feb 2023 | Vic's Tabile, the Stable Table - To be awarded after shows directed by Vic Stabile. Their directorial debut was Art as a senior project, which was an amazing and completely successful adventure. First awarded Feb 2024. | |
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| The Zahmbie - Originally awarded after plays directed by Kevin Zahm. Sometimes we give it out for extreme tech, but mostly it's retired. Don't even ask about our first attempt at an award for this one. Or if you do, make sure you ask in person. | The Hannah Banana - Awarded by Anna Barnes on behalf of Hannah Bedard. Hannah adapted and directed The Diary of Anne Frank for her Capstone Project in 2016. Should it be the Hannah Banannah? | |
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| The ClaraTiara - Awarded by Clara Maurer when she co-directed Romeo & Romeo | The MadiSonic - Awarded by Madi Barlow, when she co-directed Romeo & Romeo | |
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The
Jackie - Awarded after plays directed by Jacqueline
(Putier) Zahm. There was one presentation (of a different
trophy) when Jackie was a student director at MHS.
Another trophy (version 2) was awarded after shows she
directed while teaching Biology at South Kingstown High
School. She currently teaches and co-directs at the
Joseph H. Gaudet Middle School in Middletown, but there aren't
awards after their shows. This version was created in 2008
when she directed The Sound
Of Music.
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The
Claudia - We created this award when we produced The
Sound Of Music in 2008. Claudia Vars is our chorus
teacher and she worked some extraordinary magic with our
singers. We awarded this trophy to the person who brought the
most to the performance of the show vocally.
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The
Jackie - Awarded after plays directed by Jacqueline
(Putier) Zahm. There was one presentation (of a different
trophy) when Jackie was a student director at MHS. This
particular trophy (version 2) was awarded after shows she
directed while teaching Biology at South Kingstown High
School. She currently teaches and co-directs at the
Joseph H. Gaudet Middle School in Middletown, but there aren't
awards after their shows.
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The
Jimmy - This is a picture of the second version of the
Jimmy. This is especially entertaining to me
because (a) the jimmies in this award are about 7 years old in
this picture and (b) this is the only known picture of the
award and (c) it's being held by Jimmy Bray and (d)
I am apparently easily entertained. This award disintegrated
when the container, which was made of brittle plastic,
shattered and released the jimmies, which were held loosely
together by what appeared to be a network of fungal rhizomes.
Eww! The newer award (at the top of this page) was sealed with
silicone glue at the lid and the joint to the base, and is
made of that flexible stuff Rubbermaid uses. So, it's fine,
the rhizomes probably can't escape.
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| The Margareta - May 2008. Margaret Maurer directed "Twelfth Night." She tossed around several ideas for awards, among them "The Magpie" "The M&M" and "The M-Hour." But in the end, it came down to what was available, and we really like this one, especially in the context of the show itself. In show of cruel cruelty, her very next role was Sister Margaretta in The Sound Of Music. | The Tiara - Tia, did you give awards? Can we get a picture? | |
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The
Adam Shepherd - In March 2004, Senior Adam Shepherd
directed Icarus All
Over Again. This award is based on both of his
names (note the test tube!).
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The
Eileen - Awarded after Steel
Magnolias and any other plays directed by Eileen
(Horgan) Harris. The original of this award was lost
immediately after it was given out. This reproduction will be
given to the next winner, and passed on thereafter. Eileen is
a 1990 graduate of MHS, and presently lives in North Kingston.
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The
Joey - Joe
Ferreira was the technical director here at Middletown
for the first several years of the 1990s. He took to
giving this award after each play to the person on crew who
did the most to help the play. For a while this freed
the Jimmy up to be a cast-oriented award. We are
considering re-instating this award. If anyone knows
past winners, please
contact us. Joe is currently working at King
Philip Regional High School and doing a great job with their
theater productions! And, as of June 2016, he is
apparently still awarding the Joey - see a list of winners here
(fall) and here
(spring)!
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The
Chicklet - In 1998, a group of six young women in
the drama club wanted to do a show of their own. They chose to
perform Talking With in
January of 1999. They selected the play, and directed each
other. And they asked us to help with the awards. This, then
is the story of the Chicklet.
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The
Auer - Katherine Auer has directed some plays at
South Kingstown High School, and assisted Jackie directing
Inherit the Wind in the fall of 2002. This award was made for
those ceremonies, but only certificates ended up being
distributed.
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The
Schlinkie - Carol Schlink is the director at Mount
Hope High School, in the Bristol/Warren School District. Jim
Ascoli often plays piano for their musicals there, and we
decided to build this award for the ceremonies to follow
"Fiddler On The Roof" (May 2003).
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no picture ]
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The
Geer - We just discovered that this unawarded
trophy has been held by Greg Geer since he directed Fools
in 1988 - and he sent us pictures!. We now know that
we're not the only crazy ones in theater!
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The
Jo(h)n - Jon Davis directed Brighton
Beach Memoirs. We had an award designed, but never got
around to building it. It probably would have "tanked."
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no picture ]
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no picture ]
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The
Eddie - We built and awarded this when Ed Kirwin
directed Crimes Of The
Heart. It was a motorized propeller on a shaft in a
Newport Creamery half-gallon ice cream tub full of water. When
it was on, there were eddies. Ha ha. Peter DiPippo
earned this award, and loved it until it leaked all over his
dresser.
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Jeannette
Knapp directed and we discussed "The Knappie"
but also never built or awarded it. We continue to count our
blessings.
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