Getting Ready for the Jimmy Awards: A Q&A with the 2025 Blumey Awards Best Actress and Best Actor Winners
June 13, 2025 / Blog
It’s an action-packed start to the summer for Haley Ciaramella and Alex Board, the 2025 Blumey Awards Best Actress and Best Actor winners. The Central Academy of Technology and Arts classmates took top performance honors at the regional competition that celebrates excellence in high musical theater throughout the Charlotte area.
Just one day after graduating from their school in Union County, the pair is off to New York City to compete at the National High School Musical Theatre Awards (a.k.a. The Jimmy Awards). They are among the 110 performers from 55 regional competitions, collectively representing more than 2,000 high schools around the country, who will spend 10 days training and rehearsing with a team of accomplished Broadway professionals.
Then on Monday, June 23 at 7:30pm, Ciaramella and Board will make their Broadway debuts at New York’s Minskoff Theatre. The 16th annual Jimmy Awards is hosted by Josh Groban, the multiple Tony, Emmy and Grammy Awards-nominated performer, who most recently starred on Broadway as the title character in “Sweeney Todd.”
The ceremony can be livestreamed at jimmyawards.com.
To prepare for the Jimmy Awards, Ciaramella and Board have each been busy preparing six different potential solo numbers: two from the show their school performed this year (“Les Miserables”) plus two up-tempo tunes and two ballads. They will present selections from two of them during their preliminary adjudication rounds.
As of now, Ciaramella plans to audition with “On My Own” from “Les Miserables” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from “Funny Girl.” Board is focused on “Stars” from “Les Miserables” and “It Don’t Make Sense” from “Parade.” (Fun fact: all three of these shows have recently played at Charlotte's Belk Theater!)
This fall, both young performers will head out of state to pursue Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Musical Theater. Board will be attending the University of Miami in Florida and Ciaramella will be on her way to Missouri State University (Springfield, Missouri).
Ciaramella said hearing her name called at the Blumey Awards was like an “out of body” experience and Board said he was in “total shock.” Now that they’ve had a little time to get used to the idea, Blumenthal Arts’ blog checked in with them about their Blumey Awards experience, what they are looking forward to in NYC and their ultimate dream roles.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
Blumenthal Arts’ Blog: What was the biggest lesson you took from your Blumey Awards experience?
Haley Ciaramella: I just really had to learn to trust in my own abilities. No one is going to sound the same and I sound like my unique self and that's good. Obviously, you always hear that stuff but I, for real, had to put that into [practice]. It was a very intense week and I think I had to really focus on being proud of myself even if I didn't feel super great about something that I did.
Alex Board: I tend to get in my head a lot. I put a lot of research into the songs that I perform and sometimes that takes the joy away from performing for me. But being around a bunch of people who are just as passionate as I am and are very kind, caring and supportive, it reminded me how much I love to do this and that even if I'm singing a ballad that's all dramatic, it doesn't all have to be serious. And I can really take my time and live in the moment and enjoy doing this and enjoy sharing it with other people.
BAB: What are you most looking forward to during your time in New York?
Board: I'm really looking forward to stepping foot on that stage for the first time because then it'll solidify that these dreams are slowly becoming a reality. I have a feeling it'll be this wonderful, transformative experience and I'm also excited to share it with a bunch of performers from all around the country.
Ciaramella: I agree with everything that Alex said because I'm really excited to meet all these people and get all this training. I think the main thing for me personally that I'm super excited about is finally being able to show myself how much growth I've made personally with my relationship with my voice and myself.
[Similar to] what I was saying with the Blumey Awards experience, what I took away from that is just really being able to trust myself and believe that I am authentic in myself and that's beautiful. I don't need to compare myself to anyone else. This is the farthest I've ever gotten feeling really secure in myself and I'm really excited to go into a really rigorous area and to take that knowledge of myself and kind of put it to the test. I think that I'm finally ready for that. And I don't think I could say that any other year so I'm really, really happy about that.
BAB: What’s your dream role?
Ciaramella: Oh, I don't know. I have so many. I want to be Dot in “Sunday In the Park with George” so badly. I love every version of it. I think that vocally, she's just stunning. For any Sondheim musical, there's just so much room for showing your authentic voice in his cool way of creating. These vocal parts are so interesting to me and I love Dot's music and her character and it just resonates with me, which is weird because she's so much older and she's going through stuff that I've never been through. But for some reason it just speaks so much to me and I love her so much. [Playing Dot] would solidify everything, every dream I've ever had in my life.
Board: My all-time dream role is Ponyboy in “The Outsiders” musical. That book specifically is something I hold very close to my heart. I discovered that book when I was dealing with a loss in my personal life and it's a story that has really facilitated my own process of grief. If I could ever play that role, that'll be a big, full circle moment for me to remind myself how much I've grown and how even my darkest moments have made me a stronger person.
We went to New York for unified college auditions and I begged my mom: "If we can only do one thing, if we don't eat out once, if we don't do anything else—no shopping, no nothing, I want to see ‘The Outsiders.’” And she surprised me with tickets. So before I even auditioned for any schools, we saw this, and it gave me all the motivation I needed ‘cause it was such a beautiful story and it was so wonderfully done and I connected with the actors on such a deep level. And it was like, “Wow—I really want to work for this. I really hope that one day this could be me.”
