Students from Salina South were among Kansas high school thespians taking home Jester Awards Friday night at the 13th annual Jester Awards celebration at the Orpheum Theater in Wichita. The awards show event honors excellence in the production of high school musicals across Kansas.

As part of the award process, during the past nine months, 79 judges were invited to review 116 performances at 41 shows, involving more than 2500 students and 36 schools across the state of Kansas.

Salina South’s production of “Hello Dolly” was nominated for several awards, as was Salina Sacred Hearts’s production of “The Music Man”.

Salina South brought home awards for Best Stage Crew (Monique Rawls, Davonte Medina & Graysyn Krebs accepted the Jester), Best Leading Actress (Timeri Jayne Herrington) and Best Director (Kate Lindsay).

The awards show Friday night featured a red carpet arrival and several performances from highly nominated productions and performers. Among the performances, South students Timeri Herington, Dalton Pittenger, Michael Hutton, Jonathan Flores, Shaelin Sweet, and Molly Corbout performed a scene from “Hello Dolly”.

The Jester Awards were started by the Musical Theatre of Wichita in 2002. The goal was to bring positive attention to Kansas high schools for the excellence of the musical shows being produced on their campuses.

The 13th annual Jester Awards celebration was held at the Orpheum Theater in Wichita Friday night.