South Plantation High's Theatre Director Receiving Tony Award Recognition

This year's Tony Awards honors not only Broadway's best, but also one of South Florida's.

South Plantation High Theatre Director Jason Zembuch Young will be receiving the 2023 Excellence in Theatre Education Award Sunday night during the 76th annual Tony Awards.

"My initial reaction was disbelief, to be very honest. It's very overwhelming. It's very humbling," says Zembuch Young.

He calls it amazing that a group of parents nominated him, "and then to be selected by the Broadway League, the American Theatre Wing as well as Carnegie Mellon [University] as being the recipient of the Tony is just... it's mind blowing."

For nearly 20-years Zembuch Young has made sure every production is fully accessible to a deaf audience through shadow interpreters or actors who voice and sign simultaneously.

"I don't know of other public mainstream high schools that aren't specifically schools for the deaf or hard of hearing students that do this same kind of work," adds Zembuch Young.

He says he has a loyal group of deaf audience members who come to every single show.

While he serves as director, producer and technical director, who brings in creative teams for musicals, the productions don't come cheap, ranging between $20,000 and $40,000 each.

Since the department doesn't receive a budget from the school or the school board, just about every penny raised will be reinvested into production, so the $10,000 donation that comes with the award will be used to update some outdated theatre equipment.

But Zemcuch Young is leaving South Plantation High. "My family here at South has needed me for the last 19 years, now my family at home needs me." He's been commuting from Lake Worth for five years, and his daughter is now 11. So he'll be a founding director at the new, Dr. Joaquín García High School, where his daughter will attend.

First up is Sunday night's Tony Awards, which will air live on CBS.

He and his husband will be attending, "Carnegie Mellon is bringing us in and treating us like freaking royalty... It's unbelievable. They're pulling out all the stops... This truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity."

(Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)


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