McKinley Harper wins best actress honor

Clark County res­i­dent and George Rogers Clark High School stu­dent McKinley Harper recent­ly took home the gold. 

Competing at the sec­ond annu­al Kentucky Performing Arts (KPA) Bradley Awards in Louisville, McKinley will now advance to the Jimmy Awards and rep­re­sent her­self on a nation­al stage. 

The KPA Bradley Awards is a pro­gram to hon­or musi­cal the­ater excel­lence in Kentucky and south­ern Indiana. This pro­gram is a path­way award into the Jimmy Awards, a high school musi­cal the­ater com­pe­ti­tion that acknowl­edges out­stand­ing per­for­mances on a nation­al scale. 

With judges attend­ing high school pro­duc­tions all across the com­mon­wealth, they have the task of nom­i­nat­ing just five young men and five young women as the cream of the crop. McKinley was nom­i­nat­ed in the cat­e­go­ry of Best Actress in a Leading Role, where she ulti­mate­ly beat out four oth­er young actress­es to claim the title. 

“The recog­ni­tion of win­ning Best Actress in a Leading Role is just super val­i­dat­ing,” says Harper. “As some­one who has not been entire­ly sure if I will do this in my future, get­ting this award gives me a boost of con­fi­dence that I have been look­ing for.” 

One could say that Harper’s con­fi­dence had been boost­ed in a show that may sound grotesque to a stranger to the the­atre world. However, her per­for­mance as Penelope Pennywise in Urinetown clear­ly show­cased why she was num­ber one. 

In prepa­ra­tion for try­ing to win big at the Jimmy Awards, McKinley says she needs to focus on resting. 

“Something I strug­gle with is let­ting myself be at ease and not tack­le every­thing all at once,” McKinely said. 

Being involved in per­form­ing from a young age, Harper’s life has had lit­tle room for rest. But by hav­ing so much time to hone her abil­i­ties, her growth has been astronomical. 

“When I first start­ed, I was very timid and shy. I was not con­fi­dent in my skills, and I was too weary to be vul­ner­a­ble,” said Harper. “Since then, I have tried to devel­op my own style, focus­ing on under­stand­ing my char­ac­ters to the best of my ability.” 

McKinley’s per­son­al style has got­ten her this far, but she still has a lit­tle way to go before she can proud­ly say she is a Jimmy Award win­ner. Once arriv­ing in New York City for this pres­ti­gious com­pe­ti­tion, McKinley must earn a spot among many tal­ent­ed young actors in the char­ac­ter med­ley, where she will per­form the role that won her the Bradley. 

If she advances past the char­ac­ter med­ley, she must per­form a song that flex­es her prowess as a per­former, stray­ing away from the com­fort­able hands of Penelope Pennywise. However, Harper has a plan on how she will prevail. 

“I have been meet­ing up with sev­er­al direc­tors and coach­es to work on the six songs I select­ed for the Jimmys,” said Harper. “I spend a lot of time work­ing on char­ac­ter­i­za­tion and tru­ly under­stand­ing the con­text of each song to make it more hon­est and real.” 

With this oppor­tu­ni­ty, McKinley is plan­ning on mak­ing more than just her char­ac­ters feel real, but her dreams as well. 

“Growing up, I always knew I want­ed to con­tin­ue doing musi­cal the­ater, but was told it wasn’t real­is­tic,” she said. “This award has shown me that I can have suc­cess, which has then made a future in musi­cal the­ater seem possible.” 

McKinley, along with the oth­er nom­i­nees, will be resid­ing in New York from June 12 until the day of the com­pe­ti­tion on the 22^nd. There they will rehearse, net­work, and cre­ate beau­ti­ful art. 

And when the Jimmy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role is pre­sent­ed, Winchester hopes it goes to McKinley Harper.