Every year O-pa selects two outstanding students from our Nebraska Theater Academy program to represent the state’s musical theater talent on the national stage.
We caught up with the 2024 finalists Derek Penner (Blair High School) & Samara Follette (Lincoln Northeast High School) after their whirlwind trip to New York City for the Broadway League’s National High School Musical Theatre Awards®, also known as the Jimmy Awards®.
The students experienced private coaching, master classes, and rehearsals with theater professionals, attended the Tony Awards®, and performed on the Minskoff Theater stage! Samara was named the week’s Rising Star for impressive advancement during the Jimmy Awards® program.
Here’s what they have to say about the once-in-a-lifetime experience!
Q: Why do you love theater?
Samara: I love theater because I don’t think there’s another art form that comes even close to it. Being able to see someone in their element and see them be vulnerable is one of the most beautiful things in the entire world. I love musical theatre specifically because it combines that with music, and music is truly the gateway to a person’s soul. There’s nothing more beautiful than combining someone’s body and soul to do one thing.
Derek: I’ve always had a passion for performing ever since I was a kid, dragging my siblings into doing puppet shows. I love being able to portray someone else’s life in my own way, and in a way the audience can relate to it. My favorite thing about theater is probably the opportunity to interpret a character’s feelings or actions in so many different ways so that it’s something new every time.
Q: How did you become involved in the Nebraska Theater Academy?
Samara: My high school decided to sign up Nebraska Theater Academy adjudication this year. My theatre director had a lot of faith in the Anastasia cast’s abilities and wanted other people to see that.
Derek: I became involved through Blair High School’s participation in the program. From participating in workshops to participating in the Nebraska showcase, Nebraska Theater Academy has many great opportunities for theater-kids all over Nebraska.
Q: What inspired you to audition for nationals?
Samara: For me, the way I’ve had to perform theatre has been very different for a lot of people, and I wanted people to know that there isn’t one way to do or experience theatre. I grew up with a deaf mom who came to every single one of my performances to cheer me on without ever really knowing what was going on. I had a conversation with her that made me aware of that, and it changed the way I did theatre forever. The way I perform is entirely because of my mom. I also grew up in a very low-income household and was subjected to the idea that you could only do music and theatre if you had loads of money to take lessons and things, and I wanted people in a similar position to know that’s not the case at all. If you work hard enough, anything is possible. If you learn to not take “no” as an answer, anything is possible.
Derek: When I was a freshman in high school, Nathan Hiykel, a senior at Blair, got selected as a National Nominee to the Jimmy Awards through the Nebraska Theater Academy. Seeing him perform and get selected from a small theater department, compared to others around the state, inspired me to continue to grow and develop as a performer. My sophomore year I auditioned but didn’t make it past the callbacks round. Expecting the same thing to happen again, I auditioned the next year but I got selected as one of the national finalist! Being a finalist my junior year really encouraged me to keep doing what I love. I encourage everyone to find something they love to do and just go for it. You never know what might happen!
Q: How did you feel when you found out you had been selected as a national nominee?
Samara: I remember hearing “have chosen you to rep—” and I threw my mom’s phone and ran across the porch and dropped down and started sobbing haha! It felt amazing. Growing up in theatre, I had two very different things being told to me. One being “you can do it because you’re serious about it” and the other being “You can’t do it because you’re not ‘trained.’” All I’ve ever wanted to do was to let people like me know that dedication takes you such a long way. Not giving up takes you such a long way. Being your number one supporter takes you such a long way. Being picked gave me the absolute certainty that that was true.
Derek: When I found out I was selected as a national nominee I was in the middle of my school’s scholarship reception program. When I got the call, I originally sent it to voicemail, but when they called again I decided to pick it up. Getting that phone call was very unexpected for me, so it took everything in me not to start screaming in the hallways of my school. Having to go back into the auditorium surrounded by my friends and not being allowed to tell them the good news was very difficult, but it made the announcement all the more special!
Q: What was it like going to New York City and performing at the Jimmy Awards?
Samara: Performing at the Jimmys was so, so inspiring. It was truly unlike anything I’ve experienced in my life. Being up there with some of the most talented kids in the nation was just so incredible. Performing alongside the next generation of Broadway and of theatre was just amazing. I feel like you always imagine yourself where you want to be and how you think you would feel but you really, truly don’t know until you’re actually experiencing it. Going to New York solidified what I already knew about my future. It made me absolutely certain that I was going down the right path.
Derek: Performing at the Jimmy Awards was truly such an incredible experience. Working with the Broadway professionals and all the other nominees was something I never dreamed I would get to do. It was also my first time in New York so it was crazy to be at Broadway for the first time not as a tourist, but as a Broadway performer! Similarly, the very first time I’d ever been to Times Square, my face was on a billboard!
Q: What’s the most important thing you learned in NYC?
Samara: Seeing how much theatre and music is integrated into every facet of the world was the most amazing thing to me. During my senior year, I was a student helper for the Unified Music class and the entire purpose was to learn how much music is embedded into everything. In Lincoln, I would think about that a lot after that class and would notice it in things like coworkers listening to music at work, someone tapping their pencil on their desk, the bell ringing. In New York, I noticed it in the honking of car horns, the cadence people were walking in down the street, the tempo that the cross walk would blink in. NYC helped me see that music is the world.
Derek: As cliche as it sounds, the most important thing I learned in NYC would probably have to be not to give up. It doesn’t matter where you come from, all that matters is your attitude, work ethic, and whether or not you believe in yourself. As soon as you stop believing that you can do it, everyone else will too. You will get rejected many times in your life, but if you focus on the rejection it will just take you backwards.
Q: What are your plans and/or hopes for the future?
Samara: Returning to New York is on my radar. Right now, I’m majoring in theatre acting and minoring in music composition at Ball State. I would love the opportunity to film act; I think it would be so cool. I would also love to return to Broadway one day in Hadestown or Moulin Rouge. Composition wise, I’d love to return with my musical being the one performed. It would definitely be a full circle moment for me!
Derek: Starting this fall I will be attending the University of Northwestern – St Paul to double major in Musical Theatre and Graphic Design. My hopes are to pursue performing in some way post-graduation.
