Catherine Laborde Brings Centaur Pride To the Stage at the Jerry Herman Awards
Senior Catherine Laborde on stage as Eurydice with senior Ryan Vermette as Orpheus, photo credit: Andy Reilman.
Out of all the student actors from over 50 competing high schools in the area, Culver City High School senior Catherine Laborde took home the annual Jerry Herman “Best Supporting Actress” award for her exceptional performance as Eurydice in this year’s spring production, Hadestown. She was honored at an annual awards ceremony at the historic Pantages Theater in Hollywood on May 3rd.
The Jerry Herman Awards celebrate excellence in high school musical theater in the greater Los Angeles area, honoring both crews and casts. The competition includes twelve performance and technical categories open to any Los Angeles high school theater program. Named after the legendary Broadway composer and lyricist Jerry Herman, who wrote 10 original Broadway productions with over 85 songs, these awards spotlight outstanding local talent.
Excitingly, Laborde is the first-ever CCHS actor to win in a performance category, although she mentions that it is debatable that she won for “Best Supporting Actress” category as her character Eurydice is often considered a lead role. However, this was not Culver High’s first Jerry Herman award: we have had our share of wins in the technical category, usually lighting and staging, thanks to our dedicated backstage crew.
To win at the Jerry Herman Awards, theater programs must register months in advance of the production. Once registered, volunteer adjudicators will show up to a performance unannounced to survey the production, giving their notes and recordings to a panel that gives the final evaluation and decides the awards. Since the adjudicators could attend any show, this always puts extra pressure on both the cast and crew.
The Jerry Herman Awards are one of 58 regional preliminaries for the National High School Musical Theater Awards, also known as The Jimmy’s. Recipients of the Jerry Herman leading actress and actor awards represent Los Angeles at the Jimmy’s in New York. There, they meet various Broadway composers, directors, and actors to hone their skills. Laborde mentions that a while back, CCHS had a leading actress make it to the final round, though she unfortunately did not win.
When Laborde got the news, she was “thrilled and excited” to have won, but also scared to give a speech to the whole audience, parents, judges and adjudicators. She wanted to “make sure to recognize the leaders of the department, J.D. Sargent and Heather Moses, whose jobs were in jeopardy” because of the recent budget cuts, and to properly thank everyone else involved. But once she started speaking, her nerves went away, and she was able to enjoy her win, with a, as she put it, “cool trophy” to commemorate it.