At a venue that has hosted theatrical performances from Hamilton to Wicked to Chicago, you couldn’t write a better script for Village Christian Theatre Arts.

For the second time in school history, VCS performed live on the legendary Hollywood Pantages Theatre stage, this time taking home the top award for Best Production for “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” at the prestigious Jerry Herman Awards on May 5.

During the production’s run in March, adjudicators from the Jerry Herman Awards attended VCS shows by both Rose and Mirror casts, making the Best Production honor a fully encompassing achievement of everyone involved.

“That award goes to every individual involved in this show—every student on stage, the directors, stage crew, and adult production team,” said Director of Theatre Arts Natalie Taylor. “We are so honored and thankful to be recognized for our hard work.”

In 2016, VCS Theatre Arts performed a medley from Mary Poppins at the Pantages, earning Best Live Performance from the Jerry Herman Awards, which annually honors the best shows in Southern California.

According to the organization’s website, “The Jerry Herman Awards is a local celebration dedicated to recognizing, encouraging, and rewarding achievements and excellence in high school musical theatre. It is the local award ceremony for  The National High School Musical Theatre Awards, also known as The Jimmy’s, which take place annually at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway in New York City.”

VCS received four total nominations for this year’s awards, including Best Production, Best Costume Design, Best Musical Direction, and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Walz). 

At the ceremony, Village’s 45-member cast brought the house down with “Be Our Guest,” garnering widespread praise from the judges, rival schools, and attendees across the theatre.

“The audience was packed with 2,700 people and they gave us a standing ovation at the end of the number,” Taylor said. “The energy in the room was epic. Our students shined bright for Christ.”

Said Director of Theatre Arts Kendall Lloyd: “It was such a rewarding experience for our students to perform on the historic Pantages stage, and to see the audience leap to their feet in response to our performance was lovely. It’s one thing for our students’ parents, teachers, and friends to leap to their feet, but that kind of response from complete strangers is incredibly moving. More importantly, I am proud of the way the VCS students conducted  themselves on stage and off. They represented Village and Jesus to all we encountered.”

The moment was just as monumental for the students.

“Goosebumps,” said senior Hawkins Meek. “Even when we would do it in the Kendall, we knew we had something special. Every single time we did it, you could feel the energy of every person on stage. So doing it on the Pantages and looking out and seeing everyone standing up – standing up for us, Village Christian’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ – it was crazy. It was like a 30-second applause and standing ovation. There was nothing like it. It was the proudest moment possible knowing all our hard work got us here and got us that response from those people.”

Meek was also honored at the show with an on-site nomination as a finalist for Best Actor, which included an impromptu live solo performance of “It Don’t Make Sense” from Parade.

“For me, that whole experience was like ‘I can do this. I’m capable. I can do this,’” Meek said. “Coming off the college audition process, you face a lot of rejection, and rejection can be hard and it can be tough, but just having that experience of just like ‘you’re meant to be there and it’s all meant to happen,’  that was so cool. God has a plan and everything that was meant to happen, happened. It was really reaffirming for me.”

Meek was also part of the show’s opening number with fellow VCS senior Maya Ponce. The two attended two days of rehearsals and auditioned in front of such judges as the renowned Kenny Ortega, Cathy Rigby, Jeff Loeb, Sharline Liu, and Lewis Wilkenfeld.

Before the ceremony began, the cast had one short rehearsal on the Pantages stage to go over final blocking in the historic venue. During breaks and prior to their performance, students prepared and warmed up in the same hallways as the top travelling productions in the nation.

“When I was 10, I stood outside the Pantages for hours on a Saturday, and I won the lottery to see Wicked,” said Ponce. “It was my first time going into the theatre, and I will never forget it. I walked into the theatre, I looked up at the ceiling and the stage and everything, and I started crying. It was so beautiful to me. … Performing on that stage and thinking from an audience perspective, it was kind of out-of-body. It was really cool to be there and get that experience after aspiring to be on the stage for so long. There was something so surreal almost about it.”

The event spanned three hours, and was punctuated by the special honor, which was presented by 104.3MYfm hosts Sean Valentine and Jillian Escoto, a VCS lifer from the Class of 2002.

“I was beaming with Crusader pride when I saw Village had received multiple Jerry Herman nominations. Then my jaw was on the floor as I watched ‘Be Our Guest’ from the Pantages wings,” Escoto said. “But the ultimate joy took over as I watched these amazing and incredibly talented students take the stage to accept their award. I felt like a very proud older sister that night.”

When Village Christian was announced, the entire cast rushed back on stage to share in the special moment.

“VCS performed Mary Poppins the year before I came to Village. My whole entire time being in the theatre community, I’ve heard stories of the kids going to the Pantages and performing,” Meek said. “Seeing everyone be up there for that recognition, it was crazy… Just knowing that out of every single one of the shows they saw, they were like, ‘That one.’ It says so much about our theatre program and the quality of work that we do and that we can do it.”