Hannah Novotny, Katherin Kofstad, Kalista Koster and Julie Matter recently learned they received honors through the Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards for their October/November production of Cinderella. Pictured are the four girls, their trophy and the pumpkin used in the production. Allison Graham/News Chronicle

South Tama received the “Distinguished Scene” award for the scene “A Lovely Night” starring Hanah Novotny as Cinderella, Julie Matta as the stepmother Madame, Katherin Kofstad as the stepsister Charlotte, and Kalista Koster as the other stepsister Gabrielle. Due to COVID-19, Des Moines Performing Arts earlier announced that the 2020 Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards Showcase scheduled for June 1, 2020 at the Des Moines Civic Center had been cancelled.

In this unprecedented time of social distancing, theaters ranging from Broadway to high school auditoriums are dark across the country. In addition to impacting the year-end IHSMTA Showcase, a significant number of participating school productions were unable to be performed as scheduled due to school closures.

Despite these challenges, the IHSMTA program remains committed to supporting students and drama programs across the state during this time. “It is important to uplift all 86 schools in the program, regardless of whether they had the opportunity to perform their shows for their school communities,” said Education Program Coordinator Sarah Florian.

To that end, a special Digital IHSMTA Showcase has been launched online. It features videos, photo galleries and other special content from schools and students from across the state, with new content added regularly. “We hope the Digital IHSMTA Showcase can serve as a virtual stage for Iowa’s talented and hardworking theater students, said Florian.

Pictured is the trophy awarded to Novotny, Koster, Kofstad and Matta. The trophy will be displayed in a case at the high school. Allison Graham/News Chronicle

Students and the public can explore the Digital IHSMTA Showcase by visitingdmpa.org/digital-ihsmta-showcase In addition, the IHSMTA program had hosted aseries of virtual webinars and master classes for participating students throughout April and May. The learning opportunities will cover a variety of performance and technical topics, such as stage management, dance, college auditions, and weeklyBroadway trivia.

“We are thrilled to find creative ways to make sure that Iowa stheater students are seen and that they know that the IHSMTA family is here forthem during this time,” said Florian.

“We all put so much work into the performance,” Novotny said.

“We have a good chemistry when it comes to working together because we are all passionate about it so that’s just what made it better,” Kofstad said.

“It means we stand for something bigger than ourselves and other people,” Koster said.

“I think the diversity of this group itself. We are each different types of actors. We are each different types of singing styles so to combine that all into one scene I think it was a pretty powerful moment. You don’t get a lot of moments where you feel like this is a good scence but everytime we performed that scene we had fun,” said Matta.