BWW San Antonio: 2018 Joci Award Winners

For 25 finalists from 11 area high schools, $105,000 in scholarship funding was at stake at the 10th Annual Joci Awards, Las Casas Foundation's annual scholarship competition, May 20 at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre. Students sang, danced and acted before an audience of more than 500 and a panel of celebrity judges. Judges were Justin Blancard, Kirsti Carnahan, Caitlyn Caughell, Ryan Driscoll, and Christopher Windom. Each judge has quite an impressive resume of performances and directing opportunities. This made them well qualified to judge the students who were nominated.

The five categories of competition included: Acting, Best Lead Actor in a Musical, Best Lead Actress in a Musical, Dance and Vocal. Scholarships ranged from $3,000 to $6,000 in competition categories. An additional $10,000 was awarded to the best overall performance.

The winners of the 2018 Joci Awards are:

OVERALL WINNER:

$10,000 - Mikayla Johnson

ACTING:

$6,000 Mikayla Johnson Edgewood Fine Arts Academy

$4,000 Mick Buck North East School of the Arts

$3,000 Gilberto Beltran Donna North High School

$3,000 Katerina Pourliakas Ronald Reagan High School

$3,000 Gabriel Samandi International School of the Americas

$3,000 Roberto Soto McCollum High School

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A MUSICAL:

$6,000 Drake Leach Saint Mary's Hall

$4,000 Andrew Swetonic Ronald Reagan High School

$3,000 Jose Ruiz-Gonzalez North East School of the Arts

$3,000 Caden Thomas North East School of the Arts

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL:

$6,000 Bella Campos Ronald Reagan High School

$4,000 Lauren Cole Sandra Day O'Connor High School

$3,000 Andrea Diaz North East School of the Arts

$3,000 Emily Edwards North East School of the Arts
$3,000 Eleanor Hardwick North East School of the Arts

$3,000 Amber Mawande-Spytek Seguin High School

$3,000 Presley Weber Alamo Heights High School

DANCE:

$6,000 Abigail Amaya North East School of the Arts

$4,000 Peyton Davis Sandra Day O'Connor High School

$3,000 Emma Vicana Johnson High School

VOCAL:

$6,000 Olivia Eguia Alamo Heights High School

$4,000 Skye Palmer North East School of the Arts

$3,000 Kat Damm North East School of the Arts

$3,000 Zander Herrera North East School of the Arts

$3,000 Hannah Peyton North East School of the Arts

The Joci Awards also serves as a Regional Awards Program (RAP) for the National High School Musical Theatre Awards in New York City. For finalists in the Best Lead Actor and Best Lead Actress in a Musical categories, adjudication, preliminary audition, and Joci Awards scores were all factored into an overall score. The two finalists with the highest overall score in the Best Lead Actor and Best Lead Actress categories were selected to advance to the Jimmy Awards in New York City. Bella Campos and Andrew Swetonic, both students at Ronald Reagan High School will represent Texas during the week long program. They will experience private coaching with the industry's top professionals and train for a finale performance where they compete for additional scholarship funds. The selection panel includes nationally recognized playwrights, actors, choreographers and dancers.

Founded in 2009, the scholarship program has awarded over nearly $1 million in scholarship money in the disciplines of theatre acting, musical theatre singing and dancing. Since 2011, it has awarded at least $100,000 per year to deserving students who excel in the performing arts, making it the largest scholarship funding source of its kind in the United States.