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Las Casas Talent Competition Set For Broadcast On KLRN

For the last six years, the Last Casas Foundation has been busy doling out college money in talent contests. This year it's taken one step further.

“We’ve given out $500,000 in college scholarship money to graduating seniors in San Antonio and the surrounding area," said Kevin Parman, the president of Las Casas. It all started with a 135 applications.

“And we get that number down to 24 finalists,” said Parman.

And those finalists really have to perform to earn their scholarship money, as Parman explained.

“The least money that those 24 people can win is $1,500, and it ranges all the way up to $15,000,” he said.

Cameron Kauffman is a winner from Alamo Heights High School.

“It’s such a fun, fun thing to be involved in,” she said.

Parman details the awards offered:

“They compete in four different categories. We have solo acting, duet acting, singing and dance, and this is the first year we’ve added a fifth category. It’s the Jimmy Category. It was named for Jimmy Nederlander," he said.

Nederlander is a huge Broadway name, and Broadway is the place where the two Jimmy Award Winners got to go as their prize. Parman said they get some specialized coaching while there: “Working with choreographers, directors, acting coaches, vocal coaches."

Parman got to go to watch the culmination of their trip and described it this way: "Two of our kids were working on a Broadway stage, which is pretty amazing to watch.”

But that’s not all. On May 18 the talent competition at the Charline McCombs Empire Theater was recorded by KLRN-TV.

“I was standing in the back of the theater watching on the monitors as they were filming it, so I was watching to see how it was taking shape and it was looking absolutely stunning,” Parman said.

KLRN broadcasts the competition Friday night at 9 and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

KLRN Preview:

LAS CASAS FOUNDATION Scholarship Promo from James E. Sanders Jr on Vimeo.

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii