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The Palms, or the Rio Grande Valley High School Theater Awards, returned to the McAllen Performing Arts Center for a fourth year following a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The glitzy ceremony had an amazing turnout of students, families and educators from high schools across the RGV to celebrate their hard work and dedication to the arts. Held in association with the McAllen Performing and Cultural Arts Foundation, the ceremony aims to encourage the love for the arts by recognizing and supporting the high school theater community.
McAllen Rowe, Sharyland Pioneer and Edinburg Vela High School were only a few of the schools nominated for awards this year.
One way of providing recognition toward students is with the red-carpet experience which happens right before the main event where students can show off their elegant dresses and dapper tuxedos and have their pictures taken by professional photographers.
“I couldn’t be more amazed to be here and see everybody’s outfits,” Emily Garza from PSJA North Early College High School, who was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical, said. “Theater kids know how to dress. I love being here and watching all the other shows performing too, it’s so hard to believe we’re all high school students.”
Garza didn’t lie.
The students were sharply dressed for their big day as they gathered around and took selfies, socialized and walked down the red carpet like any Broadway or Hollywood star would do at a premiere or awards show.
“We have a red-carpet experience for these students to be celebrated so they can feel like superstars and they really love getting dressed for it,” said John Garza, president of The Palms. “We just really want to make them feel valued and what they do is valued.”
The Palm Awards was founded in 2018 by Michael Alebis and Gilbert Zepeda, who is vice president of the nonprofit organization, as it was Alebis’ wish to create a platform where students could acknowledge each other’s accomplishments. Alebis passed away in 2019 after the second annual Palm Awards.
And although Alebis is gone, his vision continues to blossom with the help of his friends and colleagues.
“The show also provides scholarships for the students,” Zepeda said. “The students that win tonight will also be receiving a scholarship and so this will help encourage them to go to college and pursue their field or whatever they want to pursue, but it’s a scholarship toward their education.”
Garza added that a special visitor from Washington D.C. came down to experience this awards ceremony because they wanted to see what the buzz was in South Texas.
Felix Sanchez, co-founder of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, flew in to this year’s Palms and was blown away during the show’s rehearsal which left him wondering how he could get The Palms involved at his gala.
“To see the incredible talent in the performances is absolutely Broadway quality,” Sanchez said. “What’s sad is that for the last 50 years Latinos have been arguing that the lack of Latino representation in television and film, in English language programming, but tonight you see the enormous reservoir of talent ready and waiting in the wings to take center stage.
“And that’s what tonight is about, opening doors; it’s about creating a bridge from the Rio Grande Valley to Hollywood and to increasing Latino representation in television and film and in contemporary narratives that tell our story of who we are as citizens in the United States.”
Sanchez believes the Palms could be duplicated in other states where there’s a strong Latino population but fears the lack of representation and not having an undeniable pipeline of talent might hinder progress.
“There’s a reason we’ve been locked out of the entertainment industry,” Sanchez said. “And it’s events like this that say we won’t be locked out for long.”
