Teachers: this is a full description of the Enchantment Awards program with links to everything you’ll need. We also have a list of benefits of working with our program that you can review.

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Where It Starts

​The Enchantment Awards always begins with an education component for you and your students.

Choose your musical from the list of over 550 shows deemed eligible by the Jimmy Awards, license it, then register your production with the Enchantment Awards, nominating it and individual students for recognition. Our production awards are Best Production, Best Direction, and Best Ensemble. Our individual awards are Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Supporting Actor.

We will send three adjudicators to view your production and those specified student performances. If you register a second cast, we will send another trio of adjudicators for that cast. We share their evaluations with you.

​Our adjudicators look for a tale well told, by your production and its ensemble, and by the nominated individuals. You can review our rubrics to find out more. 

The Next Step

Adjudicators also assess performances and productions by gauging them in several criteria, using a Likert scale. The adjudication form assigns a score for each benchmark. We compare scores from all adjudicated shows and find the top 10 students nominated for Best Actress and the top 10 students nominated for Best Actor. We bring those 20 students to Albuquerque to coach them and rehearse them for a up to a week for their participation in the Enchantment Awards show. These 20 nominees will sing a short portion of a song from their performance in a character medley. They also will prepare a solo to sing on the Popejoy Hall stage. All nominees sing their solos before a panel of judges the day before the performance. They are scored on those solos as well as their character medley performances the night of the show. The 5 actresses and 5 actors with the highest scores from those two events will be selected as finalists and will sing their solos in the second act of the Enchantment Awards.

The top 10 scoring nominees for both Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor join the rehearsal process shortly before the show, preparing them for their portion of the Enchantment Awards: a medley performed with the DCC (below) and a second medley sung on their own. We also provide a workshop just for them.

We ask all programs to send us students to represent the school in our Directors Choice Chorus (DCC). Each school will be represented in this group by their Best Supporting Actress/Actor nominees, their DCC students, or both. Those students rehearse and sing in a medley with the Best Supporting Actress/Actor nominees. They perform and rehearse with those students as well as attend a workshop just for them. (If a school has a significant number of students in the Best Supporting Actor/Actress group, we will consider their school well represented and not invite additional students to the DCC.)

The 5 top scoring productions are finalists for our 3 production awards. We invite those 5 schools to perform a representative number from their show on stage in Popejoy. Students in that number arrive a day ahead of the show to rehearse it and to attend a workshop just for production nominees. Please note: tell the licensing company that you are participating in a Jimmy Awards regional program at the time you license your show. They may have different instructions for you concerning the return of materials.)

We also have 7-10 interns, nominated by you or self-nominated, and chosen by us. They join us for the week to work with our professional staff and the Popejoy Hall staff.

The Performance

As many as 150 students will perform on the Popejoy stage during the night of the awards program, which is May 3, 2026. Performances include medleys, production numbers, and solos. It’s a great night of musical theatre performances by high school students from across the state. For a complete breakdown of who performs what, check out our performance page.

The Awards

During the show, we announce all awards, including a Spotlight Award winner (or winners). The two students chosen for Best Actress and Best Actor each earn a $500 scholarship and free participation in the Jimmy Awards in New York City. The Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor each earn a $250 scholarship.

Cost

We charge each high school drama program $195 per cast (maximum 2) to participate. We never charge students to participate. We provide hotel rooms and chaperones for students who cannot commute to our rehearsals. We feed all students when they are called for rehearsal. Hotel rooms will be provided for the nights of April 28-May 2. We will review the needs for accommodations the night of May 3 on a case by case basis. In-town transportation for students to and from rehearsals or the performance and our hotel can be provided upon request. We pay all airfare, New York ground travel, and participation costs for our Best Actress and Best Actor to represent New Mexico at the Jimmy Awards. 

To Register

1. Schools complete the production registration form. The first 20 schools to register at least 12 weeks ahead of their first performance are guaranteed to be included. The earlier you register, the greater chance we have of finding appropriate adjudicators for you, thus guaranteeing your position in the program. Deadline: You must register your show by January 23, 2026. (We reserve the right to cancel your school's registration if we cannot find a team of suitable adjudicators to evaluate your show. With more time to find adjudicators, we are more likely to be able to accept your show in our program.) 
2. Nominate cast members — and, possibly, interns — once you’ve cast your production. You will receive a link to our cast nomination and intern nomination forms by email as soon as you register. This can be done immediately after registering your production, if you know your cast, or later.

​Hint: Do not wait until you have cast your show to register with us. 

If you have questions …

… send us an email.

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Photo by Nicole Bridges Photography