Will Higgins '17 wins the Paper Mill Playhouse 2017 Rising Star Award for an Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role!

A huge congratulations to MKA's Will Higgins on his win of the Paper Mill Playhouse 2017 Rising Star Award for an Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role in this year's Upper School Musical "Guys and Dolls!" Nicole Hoppe, Fine and Performing Arts Department Chair says, "The F&PA department congratulates Will Higgins for his Rising Star Award WIN for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role! In true Will-style, his acceptance speech was short, simple, heartfelt...and stopped the entire audience with laughter (it was the only one of the night to do that). We are so proud!"

The Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Awards presented by the Investors Foundation are modeled after Broadway's Tony Awards. Paper Mill Playhouse's program serves the entire state of New Jersey, with nearly 100 entered productions from public, private and parochial high schools. Since their inception in 1996, the Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Awards for Excellence in High School Musical Theatre have ignited the careers of many notable performers, all of whom attended high school in New Jersey. Among the early nominees and winners are Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables), Tony Award winners Laura Benanti (Gypsy) and Nikki M. James (The Book of Mormon), Tony nominee Rob McClure (Chaplin), Shanice Williams, star of NBC's The Wiz Live! and Olivier Award nominee Jared Gertner (The Book of Mormon).