New York, NY – April 12, 2018 – THE JIMMY® AWARDS is pleased to announce the 2018 INSPIRING TEACHER AWARD presented by WELLS FARGO to Janine Papin, Trinity Preparatory School, Winter Park, Florida and Nadine Love, William R. Boone High School, Orlando, Florida for the encouragement and inspiration that led their students to win the coveted Jimmy Award for Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance by an Actor.

The 2017 Jimmy® for Best Performance by an Actress was presented to Sofia Deler and the 2017 Jimmy® for Best Performance by an Actor was presented to Tony Moreno bothrepresenting The Applause Awards. This year’s Inspiring Teacher Award presented by Wells Fargo will be awarded to Sofia’s teacher, Nadine Love, and to Tony’s teacher, Janine Papin.

The tenth annual awards ceremony will take place on Monday, June 25, 2018 at 7:30PM at the Minskoff Theatre, 200 West 45th Street in Manhattan.

80 high school students from 40 regional programs across America will compete for theJimmy® for Best Performance by an Actor and Actress at the tenth annual presentation. The talent showcase will feature dynamic ensemble and solo performances.

“Wells Fargo is a proud supporter of the arts across the country. We have sponsored the National High School Musical Theatre Awards’ regional program in Charlotte since its inception,” said Jay Everette, SVP and Community Affairs Manager, Wells Fargo & Co. “Wells Fargo also supports the regional programs in Omaha and Seattle. We are pleased to continue our support at the national level by honoring two exceptional teachers at the Jimmy Awards.”

“A remarkable teacher has the ability to nurture potential into greatness. We are so pleased to honor Nadine Love and Janine Papin with the 2018 Inspiring Teacher Award presented by Wells Fargo,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League. “These two outstanding educators guided and inspired their students to win the Jimmy Awards last year and we praise their dedication to encouraging a lifelong appreciation of the arts.”

Founded in 2009 by Nederlander Alliances LLC, Pittsburgh CLO, and Broadway Education Alliance (BEA), the mission of the National High School Musical Theatre Awards (NHSMTA) is to raise the profile of musical theatre in schools, recognize dedicated teachers, and inspire the next generation of performers and enthusiasts.

Student performers qualify as nominees at the Jimmy Awards by winning top honors at regional high school musical theatre awards competitions presented by Broadway League member performing arts centers. Over 1,500 high schools and 100,000 students participate in these annual events. Since its inception in 2009, the NHSMTA has enabled over $2,000,000 in university and conservatory scholarships to be awarded to talented students at the national and local level—several of whom have already been cast in Broadway, Touring and West End productions.

The 2018 Jimmy Awards nominees will prepare for their debut on a Broadway stage during a ten-day professional training intensive with NYU Tisch School of the Arts' New Studio with Broadway faculty members plus other theatre professionals. Winners will be selected by a panel of industry experts.

The Jimmy Awards are presented by the Broadway League Foundation in honor of legendary Broadway producer/theatre owner James M. Nederlander, and are supported by many leading theatre industry organizations. More information about the National High School Musical Theatre Awards program can be found at JimmyAwards.com.

The Broadway League conducts the program through The Broadway League Foundation, which acts as its philanthropic arm. Part of the Foundation’s mission is to enlighten and increase the public's knowledge, appreciation and awareness of the theatrical arts, and since its founding in 1993, has supported a number of projects to help preserve Broadway's heritage and introduce new audiences to Broadway theatre. The Foundation is a corporation organized under the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law of the State of New York, the purposes of which are exclusively charitable as defined in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Donations to support the program can be made at JimmyAwards.com.

BIOS

Nadine Love - With nearly a decade of teaching experience, Nadine Love has taught high school theater in Orlando where she created an outstanding program which is nationally recognized for her students thriving as artists. Recent accolades include earning Best Production at the South Eastern Theatre Conference two years in a row with Collected Stories and The Children's Hour, and being invited to perform Songs for a New World as a mainstage production at the Florida State Thespian Festival. Nadine earned her Masters of Arts in Theatre Education from University of Northern Colorado and BFA in Design/Tech from Florida State University.

Janine Papin is employed by Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park, Florida, where she wears many hats: department chair, auditorium manager, theater teacher, director, choreographer, adviser, mentor, and sponsor of the school’s thespian troupe. She is also an actor/singer/dancer who performs with several regional theaters in the Central Florida area. In 2006 she was awarded The H. Benton Ellis Award for Excellence in Teaching. During the summer of 2015 she received a fellowship to study at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. She loves providing her students with plenty of opportunities for artistic growth. Whether in classes or productions, trips to New York City to work with professionals, traveling to Scotland to participate in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, or inviting guest artists to lead master classes at her school, she seeks to inspire the next generation of theater artists and create lifelong lovers and supporters of theater. Her biggest satisfaction comes from sharing her passion for the stage with her students and seeing them succeed.

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WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $2.0 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 8,300 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 42 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 263,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 25 on Fortune’s 2017 rankings of America’s largest corporations.

THE BROADWAY LEAGUE (Charlotte St. Martin, President), founded in 1930, is the national trade association for the Broadway industry. The League’s 700-plus members include theatre owners and operators, producers, presenters, and general managers who present in nearly 200 markets in North America. Each year, League members bring Broadway to nearly 30 million people in New York and on tour across the U.S. and Canada. The Broadway League has recently added a new category for International membership to collaborate with professionals from around the world who produce and present Broadway quality theatre. The Broadway League annually co-presents the Antoinette Perry “Tony” Awards^®, one of the most coveted awards in the entertainment industry.

Key League programs and resources include: Kids’ Night on Broadway^®, The Jimmy^® Awards, Stars in the Alley^®, Internet Broadway Database^® (ibdb.com), Broadway.org, SpotlightonBroadway.com, Commercial Theatre Institute (with Theatre Development Fund), as well as numerous conferences and forums for our members. Broadway Bridges^®, with the support of the New York City Department of Education, is aimed at giving every New York City public high school student the opportunity to see a Broadway show before graduation. TheatreAccessNYC (co-produced with TDF) is the one-stop website of accessible Broadway performances for theatregoers with disabilities. Broadway.org is the League’s official on-line headquarters for Broadway in NYC, on tour, and internationally. 

For more information visit BroadwayLeague.com, or follow @BroadwayLeague on Twitter and visit us at Facebook.com/BroadwayLeague.

Broadway theatres are filled with an exciting array of new and classic musicals and plays, providing the perfect experience for every audience. Great seats are available at every price point and are easy to buy online, by phone, or in person at theatre box offices. It’s always the perfect time to see a show. Broadway performs every day of the week at multiple curtain times to accommodate every schedule.

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