Road to the Jimmys 2026, Episode 3: The Heller Awards in Austin

If the Tony Awards speak to what’s happening on Broadway now, the Jimmy Awards forecast Broadway's future. Formally known as the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, the Jimmy Awards are an annual celebration of outstanding musical theater talent in high schools across America—from Dallas to Des Moines, San Antonio to San Diego, Memphis to Minneapolis. This year's Jimmy Awards will be held on June 22 at the Minskoff Theatre. Until then, The Broadway Show will be chronicling the Road to the Jimmys, spotlighting a few of the regional competitions that send their most talented teens to New York City each spring.

For more than a decade, the Heller Awards for Young Artists have celebrated excellence in high school musical theater across Central Texas. But this year marked a major milestone: for the first time, the program is being hosted by Texas Performing Arts, home of Broadway in Austin. We sat down with Bob Bursey, Executive and Artistic Director of Texas Performing Arts, to learn what it takes to mount a program of this magnitude, and why investing in the next generation of artists makes it all worth it.

Bursey emphasizes that the young competitors are balancing the commitment of the Hellers with their regular high school responsibilities. “It’s a huge amount of people that have to be coordinated, and keeping in mind that these are students whose main job is learning in school,” he says. “How to fit all of the rehearsals in—nights, weekends and leading up to the ceremony—is an incredible puzzle. In a community like ours, I’ve really seen how the Heller Awards opens doors to so many young artists.”