This year's winners of the Diamond Awards are back from their trip to Broadway. The Diamond Awards, hosted by Walton Arts Center, celebrate actors from area high schools. Two of those actors are selected to travel to Broadway as regional representatives to the National Jimmy Awards. Eli Taylor was honored with a Diamond Award for his work as Kristoff in Bentonville West High School's production of "Frozen," and Cali Ferguson was awarded the Diamond Award for her role in "Footloose" at Alma High School. After they returned from Manhattan, they came to KUAF.
Cali says the experience on Broadway was everything she hoped for and more, one of a kind experience.
Ferguson: I mean, I've never done anything like that before. Just spending 12 days in New York, two days traveling wise, was just out of the ordinary. You know, you don't do that regularly, but it was just amazing.
Taylor: I think the Jimmy Awards were really eye opening into what my future looks like, because we got to work with Broadway producers and Broadway music directors and directors and choreographers, and kind of feel what that rehearsal process is like. And I love it. I think it was really cool to experience that, now knowing that that's the career I want to go into.
Kellams: Yeah, sort of validation. I don't know if validation is the right word, but just a confirmation.
Taylor: Yeah. Like, this is, this is what I want to do. And I enjoyed it so much. Like, take me back right now. I could go another 10 days.
Ferguson: I feel like it definitely taught me that I am, I think I am capable of working in that career and that I do want to live in New York, because the last time I visited I was like, I do like theater, but I don't know if I could live here. I don't know if this is the right career. This is going to be a really hard path. And like, I don't know if I'm capable. And I feel like this really just taught me that, like, I can do this and that it's not impossible.
Kellams: That's so interesting, because I would think that something like this, even though, you know, you're talented and could be intimidating, but it sounds like it was the opposite. It was confirming.
Taylor: I think going into it, it was incredibly intimidating. Like, prior to being there, knowing that I was going to be around the best of the best in the country, two of which were about to become national celebrities overnight. And the first, I want to say day or two, I was nervous, and everyone has that imposter syndrome, which is helpful. And it helped me, as everyone was very verbal about what they loved about other people and their voices and their skills, to realize the depth of which the mutual admiration goes in this industry, and realize that everyone there was incredible. And that doesn't exclude me. Like, I'm there, I'm one of 116, that other people were worried about because they were so good.
Kellams: What's the energy level like, if it's the two of you in 114 others?
Ferguson: It was just amazing. It was ecstatic. I mean, opening night, like when we did our first opening number on the performance day, like I have never felt that way performing wise. Like, I just felt so alive, and I felt like, like I've never just felt that much joy and just passion for performing. And I love performing, but I've never felt that energetic before. So it was just, it was like that practically the entire week, of just always like, oh my gosh, I'm here, I'm so ready. And it's just amazing.
Kellams: Is there a Broadway stage? I mean, the actual physical stage, is it like any other stage, or can you tell you're on a Broadway stage?
Taylor: Honestly, I think the stage itself, it's really like any other stage. Like, it's, you can tell if you really look in the nitty gritty, like that the quality is higher on stuff like that, like the mechanics or. And you can see all the, because we were at the Minskoff, we could see the "Lion King" like set pieces and costumes backstage that made it feel bigger. But I mean, like that auditorium was about as big as some like high schools I've been to. Like, it's not this grandiose like stadium, it's still just, it's still just a theater, but just with a lot more money than most high school theaters have.
Ferguson: The stage was honestly really not that big. Like, we, I think our rehearsal room was probably bigger than the stage. So having to condense our numbers into that tiny space was way more difficult. And we had to do that in one day, in like a couple hours, because we only had one day on the Minskoff, which was that Monday. And so just like the stage was so much smaller, and then the auditorium was so much smaller than I imagined. And just, so, honestly, I was just like, wow, this is just a stage. And I will say that the floor was a little bit sticky. I don't know why, but it was just really weird. But like the floor was stickier than most floors.
Taylor: I did not notice that.
Ferguson: I did. I was like, this is weird. Maybe it's for like, I think it's for dancers, like when they jump or something, like they don't.
Kellams: You don't want to slip, right?
Taylor: Yeah. So the "Lion King," as they're carrying those like big rigs.
Kellams: Let me ask you about the Diamond Awards, because I snuck into a couple of the rehearsals, I think day one rehearsal. And you were, everyone was going over this song, and it was like this beat, no, come in here, come in here, come in here. And it looked rigorous. It looked, to a non-performer, monotonous, and it looked tough. What were the diamond, I mean, and not tough in a bad way, but tough in an execution, we want to get this right, what's it like to work so, so quickly to get something ready so fast?
Taylor: Um, I love it. I say this as someone who has done things in the past, and I continuously do things where I have to travel and learn something in a short period of time, between ACDA, which are these national and regional honor choirs, to the choir camp I go to, which is, I have like five days to learn 13 pieces. I've gotten very used to and loved the feeling of like quick learning and performing, because like, I need that fast paced aspect, because if we spend too long on one piece, it starts to feel like you said, monotonous. But I think when you're with people who are all so skilled and so dedicated, it doesn't feel as monotonous, because we're moving at such an intensely fast pace, that although it's rigorous, that adrenaline stays up the whole time.
Ferguson: Yeah, I say I was a little bit intimidated at first, because this was my first ever Diamond Awards. I mean, this was my first ever lead role in a musical. So I was very intimidated, and I had no idea what to expect. So like, when that happened, I was just like, okay, like this is going to be hard. But also, I was ready. I've had directors in the past, choir directors, who have prepared me, and we've basically done this exact same process. So I think I was ready, but I was a little bit intimidated, but I think I was ready.
Kellams: Yeah. All right. One last question. You can be on stage as part of an ensemble, or a duo, or yourself. Sing one song. What one song would you like to sing?
Taylor: Okay, I have to think about this one. Um.
Kellams: Let me make it a little bit easier. What's, you don't have to pick the song. But what is, you know, a song that you would love to be able to sing on stage?
Ferguson: There's so many. There's, I just, I have so many dream roles. I will say my biggest dream role is to play Christine Daae in "The Phantom of the Opera." So honestly, probably "The Phantom of the Opera," or "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again," which I love those songs. But also I love "Next to Normal" as well. So, "I Miss the Mountains," I love that song as well.
Taylor: So I was gonna say my piece would be from "Next to Normal" I would want to perform, "I Am the One," especially in the context of the show, because it's so powerful. That was the one song that the entire week of the Jimmys that me and my friends recorded together in one very cruddy take, because we had no free time. But I would like being in "Next to Normal" and getting to perform that kind of song on stage. It's really heavy, and I think, I think it'd be fun.
Kellams: Well, I look forward to seeing what happens next. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming in, and congratulations.
Cali Ferguson from Alma and Elijah Taylor from Bentonville, Arkansas, this year's Diamond Award winners. They recently attended the National Jimmy Awards on Broadway. Our conversation took place last week.
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